Who is Edward Elric?
by Gwntan12
Summary: "You don't have to be alone anymore." Seven words. Seven beautifully simple words changed Amestris's life for the better. But who is this 'Edward Elric' that his citizens constantly mistake him for? However, something is amiss. Something that may just spell the end for the Nations.
1. The Beginning of it All

Edward Elric smirked triumphly as he jabbed a thumb to the large gate behind him. This time, he had won. That was for sure. No more being screwed with and having obstacles thrust in his face to prevent him from achieving his goal. He was going to give Alphonse back everything that he lost.

"This is my Portal of Truth. Which means I get to use it however I please." His face split into a large grin. This was it. "My Portal. Take it, and give me back my brother."

The being known as Truth gaped at the Alchemist slightly in stunned silence, before it was broken only moments later, as it chuckled, multiple voices that made up the being's voice ringing through the space it occupied.

 ** _"So... That's your conclusion?"_** The Truth laughed, sounding almost... Pleased? **_"I'm impressed, Mr Alchemist. No one has ever came close to that answer. But are you sure about this?"_** The mocking tone in it's voice irked Edward, but he held his temper, for once in his life.

"I'm sure about this." He answered confidently, eyes blazing with raw determination as he stared down the Truth.

 ** _"You'll never be able to use Alchemy again, so think carefully."_**

Edward closed his eyes, thinking back to the days he used Alchemy, and remembered the joys in gave him. However, with joys, came sadness and grief. Alchemy was like two sides of a coin. It could give the user immense happiness and joy, but it could also bring despair and death along with it. Look at Ishbal. Look at Human Transmuation. Look, at what had nearly occurred today. Alchemy could save lives, but it could take it away, just as quickly.

But... It wasn't necessary to have Alchemy to be happy. Many people didn't use the science, but they lived out their lives, content right to the very end. It only proved that yes, no one actually needed it. Edward did not need it.

All he needed, were the people around him, his friends, who made him so happy. That's all he ever needed.

"I don't need Alchemy." Edward broke into a large smile. "I have all my friends, so what more could I ask for?"

This time, the Truth _laughed._ It wasn't his mocking one either. It was a genuine laugh, that actually made Edward feel warm inside. **_"Good job, Mr Alchemist! You've finally reached the right answer!"_**

The blond smiled, dizzy with happiness, or at least he was, until what the Truth said next. **_"However, that is one thing I cannot take from you."_**

Edward gaped at the Truth, feeling his jubilation come crashing down. That... That can't be right! It had to be a mistake! It had to be!

"But- but you said that I-!"

 ** _"I know what I said,"_** The Truth interrupted. **_"But the situation is out of even my hands. Rules apply, after all. If you were any other mortal, I would have taken your Portal. Gladly even. But you aren't a normal mortal, and therefore, I can't treat you as such in this situation."_**

By this point, Edward was shaking in rage and sorrow, but he still tried to reign in his temper, because one thing the Truth said stood out from his mind. "What do you mean, that I'm not a normal mortal?"

A mocking grin spread across the being's face. **_"Oh, you haven't noticed? Although that is to be expected, since you don't remember anything after you came crawling to me for a favour."_**

"I did no such thing, damn it! What the hell are you talking about?!" The temper the Alchemist had been holding back, broke through the dam he had tried to fortify, the rage rushing in like a river.

The grin remained on the Truth's face. **_"I'll return your so called brother, you've earned that much, I'll give you that. But, you'll resume your true duties."_**

"What-"

 ** _I'll even be nice, and let you say goodbye!"_**

"What are you-?!"

 ** _"Your life, Mr Alchemist, has been a lie."_** Edward froze at this, horror spreading through his face. "That can't be true! My life hasn't been a lie! It can't have been! You're lying!"

 ** _"You accuse the embodiment of Truth of lying. Your denial is much too human. Although I should expect this from the one who wanted to be human, and I quote, 'No matter how short'. But if you truly wish to keep living your lie, you may leave, and your 'brother' will stay."_**

Edward paused at this, the words sinking in. Now that he thought about it, whatever the Truth was talking about, it didn't seem as if he was going to die. He was just... Going to do something else.

Now, he didn't trust the Truth, but from what it had been saying, it was either one of them who leaves, or both of them, but one would be out of the game, in some sense. In other words, him. Alphonse would return home, safe, And that was all Edward ever wanted.

Closing his eyes, Edward breathed in to calm himself, before his eyes snapped back open. "Give Alphonse back. I don't know what you're talking about still, but I'm not leaving without Al."

The Truth laughed. **_"As expected of you. Say your goodbyes, you won't ever see your brother again. Not like this, anyway."_**

Edward, no matter how happy he was to get his brother back, mourned the fact he'll never see Alphonse again. But it's worth it, as long as his dear brother would get what he had sought for during all these years.

"Brother...?" The familiar voice caught his attention, and he whipped around, eyes landing directly on a familiar face, one that Edward longed to see again, after it's owner's soul was sealed into a suit of armour.

"Al...?" Edward asked carefully, afraid that if he wasn't careful, his brother would slip out of his reach once more.

"Brother!" Alphonse exclaimed, hugging the older blond tightly. He could s _mell._ He could _feel_ again.

"Alphonse...!" Edward choked out, bringing his dear younger brother close. He didn't want to leave this moment. Not ever. But time was ticking away, no matter what he did. So the least he could do was savour the moment.

"Brother...?" Alphonse asked cautiously, and Edward nearly cried. Oh god, Alphonse was human again. No more of the metallic echoing in his voice that Edward had gotten so used to.

Alphonse, after spending so long without feeling anything, had grown able to read the atmosphere better, after relying on things people tend to forgo in exchange for the senses they took for granted.

"Al... you won't forget me, right?" Edward choked out through the tears that were beginning to build up in his eyes. He got Alphonse's body back, so he could cry, right?

"Brother, what are you talking about?" Alphonse stared at Edward, unease building up steadily in him. "We did it. We can go home. You promised we would go home together!"

"I'm sorry, Al... there is no other way. I'm sorry... tell everyone, I'm sorry...!"

Alphonse know by then, something was horribly wrong. "Ed, you're not making any sense!"

"I'm not coming back with you."

Crack. Alphonse felt his world coming down.

"But- but why brother?" Alphonse shook, moisture building up in his eyes. "You said you you would! You promised! You promised Winry!" He was falling quickly into hysterics.

"That bastard Truth, he said that I had something else I needed to do. I can't give up my Alchemy, because I'm not like everyone else." Edward said, trying to compose himself as he blinked away his tears. "I wish I could have gone back with you."

Alphonse cried, and for a moment, he wished he was back in the suit of armour, if only it would empty the hollow feeling in his chest. It just wasn't _fair_.

 ** _"Time's up, Mr Alchemist."_** The Truth's voice reverberated around them, as the large gate behind Edward creaked open, the dark tendrils of the Gate reaching out to grab the older Alchemist.

Alphonse let out a cry, clinging desperately onto his brother as the tendrils latched onto the latter, pulling him backwards.

"Don't forget me, Alphonse." Edward smiled sadly at his brother.

"Brother!" Alphonse screamed, as he watched the last of his family be taken from him, before he blinked away the hot tears from his eyes, eyes blazing with determination. "If you're alive, somewhere in the world, I'll find you! I won't stop looking! Just wait for me!"

"Alphonse... I'll wait too. Even if what the Truth said was true." With that, the doors slammed shut, enveloping Edward in darkness.

 _ **"Welcome back, Mr Al-che-mist. Or should I say, Mr A-mes-tris?"**_

Knowledge poured itself into his brain, images flashing through his mind. Everything about Amestris. Resembool, Youswell, Rush Valley, Dublith, Central City, Liore, East City, Fort Briggs, everywhere.

Emotions rushed through him, and suddenly, he felt everything. The citizens happiness, their anguish, their disappointment, their anger.

He felt it all.

Suddenly, Edward knew. He was alive because of his citizens. They made up who he was. He wasn't Edward Elric.

He was the country.

He was Amestris.

Then it all went dark.

Elsewhere, weeks after the Promised Day, near the outskirts of the country's border which separated Creta from Amestris, a large pair of golden eyes that seemed duller than usual blinked, staring up to the cloudless blue sky.

Slowly, as he sat up, he tilted his head, feeling confused. "Am I... Amestris?" He tested the words on his tongue, satisfied with how the words comfortably rolled off his tongue, despite his speech being slow. He knew everything that had happened to him, but something in his memory was missing. But, he knew enough, to know that he was all alone, with Xerxes gone.

"Am I... alone?" The small boy asked to himself, staring at empty air. "Why... do I feel so... lonely?"

A small hand clutched the folds of his clothing, directly over his chest. "Why does it... hurt?"

A rustle of leaves, and the snap of branches underneath someone's boot. Annoyed mutterings reached the boy's ears.

"Ungrateful gits... Wasted so much time... bloody hell..." The voice drew nearer, and soon, the foliage that served as a cover to the small clearing the young boy resided in was pushed aside.

The voice paused in it's mutterings. Emerald eyes stared in astonishment at the young boy, who stared back emotionlessly with golden eyes.

"Who... are you?" He asked slowly, cocking his head to the side in question as he asked the man with emerald eyes. Something about this man was different. He felt like him. His presence screamed powerful. He was just like the small boy. And that frightened him.

The man smiled, trying to appear less threatening in the boy's eyes. "Hello there. What is a young boy such as yourself doing out here in the wilderness?"

"This... is my home... now that... mama is... gone. I can't... find her." The small nation mumbled, dragging out his sentences. "Why did she... leave? I... don't want to be... alone." He mumbled the last part to himself, not meant for anyone else's ears but his own. However, the man heard his quiet words and frowned pitifully.

"Do you not have anyone to take care of you?" The man asked, frown still on his face.

"No... I'm still... all alone..."

The man walked, leaves crunching beneath his feet as he moved closer to the boy who tensed ever so slightly, before he reached his front crouching down, he smiled in a friendly manner. "What's your name lad?"

The younger thought about it for a few moments. "I'm Amestris... Who... are you?"

"I'm England." He held out a hand to Amestris. "You don't have to be alone anymore."

Amestris stared at the hand for several moments, before slowly, a small smile creeped onto his face as his eyes began to twinkle with childish happiness for the first time, becoming a vibrant shade of gold. Placing his own small hand on top of England's, his face seemed to glow with happiness. "Thank you!"

He wasn't alone anymore.

 **[A/N ... I plead the fifth? But seriously guys. I was bored, I had no inspiration for my other stories, and I recently got into Hetalia, so what can I say? I could just leave this as a one shot, but I really don't want to, so... Yeah. This is now a story, since I don't see many like what I just wrote, and I'm absolutely brimming with ideas. I love the FACE family, and I love Ed's character too, so I thought this would be fun if I put in England. Also, this DOES have a storyline, even though I'm making some fluffy family moments. Lastly, my other stories WILL be updated in due time, once I've found where I've put my motivation. And this is un-beta'ed.**

 **~ Gwntan12]**


	2. Reflections of the FACE Family

England had only ever once civilly spoken the nation of Amestris directly. But that was a long time ago, about a hundred years or so. Before that was just the two slinging insults at each other. They even went to war once (Amestris won that one). Back then, his first impression of Amestris was that he was a loud and cocky brat who only cared about expanding his borders further, constantly going into wars just for that reason.

England never once admitted that at one point of his life, he was like that as well.

Then, sixteen years ago, Amestris disappeared, and stopped coming to the World Meetings. Gone, just like the personification of Roman Empire. But despite this, Amestris's country thrived as it gained control of more territories. Ishbal was one.

Then came the Ishbalan Civil War. And then the uprising in Liore.

A country had never undergone so many Civil Wars in such a short period of time, so England couldn't help but feel slightly worried for the lad before he pushed away the feelings.

No, he didn't have time to worry about some young upstart country with war like tendencies. Amestris could handle himself just fine.

Drachma tried to invade Amestris, but failed miserably and lost most of his men in the fight to the indomitable General who held Fort Briggs. England would know, since that was all Drachma could complain about during the World Meeting.

Amestris never turned up still.

It was a common debate among all of the countries, the personification Amestris's sudden withdrawal from the world. None of the surrounding countries knew of the cause of his disappearance. The closest they ever got, was Xing commenting that one of his citizens, the next Emperor, had been chatting about one of his friends he had met while in Amestris.

Hair like spun gold in a braid, and eyes that blazed with same hue. It would have seemed the next Emperor of Xing had found the missing personification, but the thought was quickly dismissed once the prince had mentioned he had a mechanical arm and leg to replace his missing limbs.

Nations, while they can lose a limb or two in battle, they always regrow in the end, which meant they had no need of prosthetics.

Therefore, it was quickly concluded that the Xingese prince had met someone who simply bore similarities to Amestris, which wasn't exactly uncommon for the nations.

And now, mere weeks after that particular topic was discussed, here England was, staring at a small boy who had claimed to be Amestris. He even looked like what England would have imagined Amestris to look like when he was younger.

But something was different about him, something that made him seem... Vulnerable? England had quite a few words to describe the nation, and vulnerable was not among them. Right now, he looked so painfully like a lost child who so desperately wanted someone to be there for him, And despite their rather bloody history with each other, this made England's heart clench, reminding him of his own past when his brothers pushed him around.

This must have been the reason Amestris turned out as he had. No one was there for him, so he chose dominance as the path to head down. Being surrounded by strong nations who wanted his hide must not have helped in his mentality as he grew up. The only nation who wasn't actively trying to take over him was Xing, but that was mainly because there was a huge desert in the way, and Xing probably thought it wasn't worth the effort.

Amestris had no allies, and with everyone against him, he grew stronger, and became a powerful nation behind his borders, so strong that now his surrounding nations knew they wouldn't stand a chance against him. And with the science of Alchemy behind him to back him up, Amestris was virtually unstoppable.

Which was why, England was so shocked at seeing Amestris look so innocent and child-like. So much so that his legs had started moving on his own, and kneeling down to reach Amestris's current height level, with a hand outstretched and the words escaping his lips.

"You don't have to be alone anymore."

Inside, England was torn. He didn't know if he should be doing this. He did this once, just once, with America. And look what happened next. America left, and England was left behind, heartbroken with betrayal and grief.

He didn't want to have to relive that pain again, if he got close to Amestris. Amestris looked so painfully similar to America in different ways, down to the stubborn strand of hair that refused to stay down.

But, when the emotionless mask Amestris wore cracked and fell away, England couldn't help but feel that maybe, just maybe, he could change how the nation would turn out.

Golden eyes that seemed so dull before twinkled with a sort of fire that England had never seen on the boy prior to this was proof. He was going to turn out differently this time. England was sure of it.

This time, England walked away, his hand clasping a smaller one, a smile etched onto his face.

0o0

America had once spoken to Amestris, but he had seen him multiple times. Despite being horrible at reading the atmosphere, it was clear to him that Amestris, under all his layers of cockiness, really was just another nation who had cracked under all the wars he had been through.

Amestris wasn't even older than him, which was why America took notice of this, the first time he followed England to one meeting as a colony.

Amestris was close to tears as he was constantly mocked, taunted and verbally abused by the nations that surrounded him during the World Meeting. Creta, Aerugo and Drachma were such examples. Xing just flat out ignored him, turning a deaf ear to the hurtful words directed towards Amestris.

He was only physically eight at the time, while America was physically ten. But no one helped Amestris, did they? No. No one did. No one cared.

The next time America attended a World Meeting many years after that incident, this time as a independent country, Amestris was physically seventeen, and this time, the older nations around him weren't mocking him at all. Rather, they shot him wary glances, some fearful, and kept a fair distance from him while Amestris seemed smug about the whole affair. It was as if he was getting high of the other nations' fear of him.

This time, Amestris feared no one. He was a powerful nation who clawed his way to the top with wars and forceful means. The nations surrounding him feared being annexed into the rapidly growing nation, who would laugh if he did so.

America had asked him once, why did he do what he did? Amestris had simply smirked smugly, a sort of crazed madness reflected in his eyes.

"Call it payback."

That was the last time America saw Amestris before he disappeared, and stopped coming to the meetings entirely.

For sixteen years, Amestris's sudden withdrawal from the meetings and world was a commonly discussed topic. It made no sense as to why the nation would suddenly disappear. The country wasn't in isolation. People could still come and go as they pleased, so long as they weren't terrorists.

Occasionally, a nation would come to Amestris to see if there was any news of the missing personification, but Amestris's leader seemed surprised when first asked. He had no prior knowledge of such a being's existence, which meant that Amestris really was gone, and hadn't just gone into isolation.

However, this time, when England returned from Amestris, he was... Different, somehow. As if he was hiding some sort of huge secret. Being the hero, America took it upon himself to find out what was going on with the English nation.

He was unsuccessful the first few times, but when he finally found out, it wasn't even intentional.

He had been in London just so he could bother England, wandering around the park to kill some time when he heard England's voice, accompanied by a younger voice that had sounded strangely familiar to America.

There, sitting on one of the benches, was the British nation and beside him, was a young boy who looked to be about four years old holding an ice cream and devouring it happily.

England was smiling.

Of course, America had to choose this time to be unable to read the atmosphere as he crept up behind England before slamming his hands down hard on England's shoulders, giving the poor man a fright.

"Hey, Iggy! What's up dude?!"

England yelped in a rather uncharacteristic high pitched manner, falling off the bench as the smaller boy stared at America with wide eyes.

"Bloody hell, America!" England glared at said person as he stood up and tried to regain his composure. "What on earth possessed you to do that?"

"Dude, lighten up!" America laughed in his usual manner, annoying the Brit.

"And what the bloody hell are you even doing in London?!"

"I was bored! Can't I visit you?"

Before England could come up with any other words, a smaller voice cut through the air, ending any possible argument that could have began. "Big brother? Who's that?"

The small boy was tugging on the sleeve of England's coat, his golden eyes looking up at the man he called his older brother.

Wait, gold eyes?

"That git," England was saying. "Is America."

The small boy was silent for a few more seconds, shying away before he seemed to make up his mind, turning around and slowly waved at America. "Hello," He shyly said, looking rather small. "I'm Amestris."

America's brain did not compute.

"Huh?", being the only sensible thing he could come up with, before he finally gained enough of his wits. "Wait, you're Amestris?"

Amestris gave a small 'eep!' before he jumped off the bench and hid behind England.

"Dude!" America exclaimed, looking at England. "What happened to Amestris? He was, what, seventeen the last time I saw him! Why's he suddenly a kid?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself." England answered, still looking slightly annoyed at America's previous stunt. "I found him like this while I was in his country. But I think this could be related to his disappearance sixteen years ago."

America scratched the back of his head. "So wait, you've been taking care of him? I thought you didn't like Amestris! I mean, not that you taking care him is bad, since that's something I would do since I'm the hero, but I wouldn't have thought you would do it!"

"Wanker! I'm not as cold hearted as you make me out to be!" England fumed, before calming down. "Besides, you should have seen him then. If I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't have believed that boy was Amestris. So I thought if I intervened, he wouldn't turn out as he did."

America whistled. "Damn! So basically we'd have a completely flipped Amestris running around? Sweet! Wait till I tell everybody!"

England's eyes hardened as he turned to America. "America! Don't tell anyone about Amestris!" He admonished.

Confusion flickered onto America's face. "Huh? Why not?"

"...what happened to the sensible boy I raised?" England moaned to himself quietly, too quietly to be heard by America before the Brit addressed the American. "If you haven't already forgotten, Amestris has plenty of enemies who would take this chance to hurt him!"

"Oh! That makes sense!"

"Idiot!"

Throughout this, Amestris had peeked out from behind England, observing the other person who was talking with his older brother. Although most of their conversation didn't make sense to him yet, Amestris could feel that the other man was nice, albeit a little louder than most people.

This America suddenly didn't seem as scary as he initially made him out to be.

Maybe he'd try to say hello again.

Slowly, Amestris released the grip he had on the back of England's pant leg, before moving over to America, tugging on the said person's pant leg to get his attention.

When vibrant blue eyes from behind glasses looked down, meeting Amestris's golden eyes, he faltered for a moment, terrified, before swallowing his fear and grinned happily. "He-hello A-me-merica!"

He still had trouble pronouncing names, and blushed with embarrassment at his attempt. However, America, judging from his facial expression, thought this was rather cute- not that he'd ever admit it though, since he was the hero!

"Hey England! If you're taking care of Amestris and he's calling you 'big brother', does that make me his brother too?"

"No."

"C'monnnnn!"

"No."

This went on for a good fifteen minutes until Amestris finally realized what they had been talking about for the last fifteen minutes before he called America 'brother America'. Needless to say, the American had been overjoyed, while the Brit wished there was a conviently placed wall for him to thump his head against.

0o0

France had never spoken to Amestris, only having seen him from afar. Mainly because Amestris was avoiding France's _L'Amour_ that he had seen some nations be on the recievinb end of, no matter what gender they were or how powerful they were, and quite frankly, Amestris didn't want to have to deal with him, but France didn't have to know that.

His reaction to Amestris's disappearance was similar to the others. Surprise, and nothing more than that.

He had no reason to be badly affected since Amestris and he had never spoken, and therefore were not friends, or even acquainted. He was just a stranger to him.

France had seen nations come and go in his life, so what was one more?

Although it was strange how the personification had disappeared, and yet there was absolutely nothing wrong with the actual country itself, other than the high number of civil wars.

Life went on, and sixteen years slipped by, with France barely giving a thought to the nation, other than the times when the topic during the World Meetings would slip to the subject of Amestris.

France wouldn't have thought he would ever see the young nation ever again, especially not how Amestris was.

It was gorgeous evening in Paris, after another hectic World Meeting in which nothing was accomplished. However, France couldn't help but notice that during the meeting, England and America were acting rather strange. Not that they weren't already strange, since that being strange or eccentric already came along with the job of being a country, but the former empire and colony were acting extra strange.

For one, England had yet to insult France at least once, being completely unresponsive to France's attempts at spreading L'Amour as he kept on glancing out of the window, seemingly unable to sit still and quit fidgeting.

Secondly, while America was still talking about super heros saving the earth from Global Warming, he too, kept on glancing out of the window and occasionally meeting England's eye, as if they had some secret kept strictly between them.

And once the meeting had ended, the two nations had immediately gotten up, packed their stuff and record speed before promptly leaving together.

That was around the time France assumed they were going to resolve their sexual tension towards each other, before throwing the whole meeting into the back of his head.

Even during the winter, Paris was as beautiful as always, France had noted, stepping out of his country's UN building. After all, Paris was the city of _love._

However, these thoughts were cut short as he heard the distinct sound of a child crying. A young one, at that. Feeling rather curious, France followed the sound, his shoes crunching against the snow beneath the soles.

The child, was quite the small thing. Looking to be no older than three or perhaps four, it was quite heart wrenching to see him sobbing, face flushed with the cold.

"Big brothers!" He was crying. "Where are you? I don't want to be alone!"

France looked at the scene pitifully, a frown marring his face before he decided on his next course of action.

"Are you alright, petit garçon?" France asked gently, kneeling down next to the small boy who paused in his crying, wide golden eyes staring up at him cautiously.

"I can't find my big brothers." He sniffed, rubbing at his eyes. "I want big brother Alfie and Artie!"

"Can you tell moi how they look like?" France asked patiently, silently feeling grateful he had experience with small children, thanks to having taken care of Canada when the nation was younger.

"Alfie is real tall!" The boy began. "He wears glasses and this brown jacket with the fuzzy stuff too! Artie is shorter, but he has huge eyebrows!"

France paused, taking in this information before something in his brain clicked. "By any chance, would their names be Ameriquè and Angleterre?"

Although the younger boy didn't know a word of French, he understood the first name perfectly, since it sounded so similar to it's English counterpart.

"Yeah!" He exclaimed, before stopping short. "How do you know their names? Big brother England said no one should know their real names!"

"Ohohonhon~ I know because moi is the Country of Love, this very one you're in!" France laughed, all the while wondering how the boy was related to his favorite British and American nations. After all, neither of them ever mentioned picking up a new colony of sorts.

"What do you mean, you can't find Amestris?!" A voice drifted over to the duo's spot. A ver familiar voice laced with a British accent.

"Dude, Amestris was right there! Then he just disappeared!" An American voice wailed loudly.

"Idiot! And in the frog's country, no less!"

"I told you, I'm sorry!"

The boy brightened up. "Big brothers!" He called loudly. "I'm here!"

France stared at the boy. He couldn't be... It was just impossible! But now that he thought about it, the boy did resemble the missing nation, from the golden coloring of his hair and eyes, to the stubborn strand of hair that refused to stay down.

"Amestris!" England returned the call, only to pause as he caught sight of France right next to his beloved little brother. "What the-?! What are you doing here, frog face?!"

"How rude!" France complained dramatically. "In my own country no less!"

"Big brother Artie!" Amestris sobbed as he threw himself towards England, who staggered back at the point of impact.

"Angleterre," France began, looking uncharacteristically serious. "I believe you owe moi an explanation. Who is that boy, and why did you call him Amestris?"

"I- I don't need to explain anything to you frog!"

"Dude, where's Amestris?!" America yelled as he jumped into the scene, skidding to a halt before he paused, not reading the atmosphere once again. "Uh... Dudes, am I interrupting something?"

0o0

Canada wouldn't say he disliked Amestris. Rather, he and the younger nation were nearly on the friends level. Amestis didn't forget about Canada, and actually noticed him, which gave him a spot in Canada's good book. Whatever the reason was, Canada didn't care, being glad to actually be visible to someone, and not just some shadow in the background.

Amestris was actually quite a nice person, if you could get past his flaws. And Canada appreciated how he would sometimes get the others to notice him.

It was nice not being forgotten for once.

When Amestris disappeared, Canada was quite worried. Around that time, they had slowly become friends, with a bit of reluctance from the younger nation. The last time Canada saw Amestris, the nation had said, "Something's wrong with my country."

After that, he was never seen again.

As the other nations would debate on the cause of Amestris's disappearance, Canada tried to tell everyone what the missing nation had told him. But without the said nation, no one paid any attention to him, and once again, he was but a voiceless shadow in the background.

Not deterred, Canada constantly travelled to his friend's country, hoping to find some clue to his disappearance. However, over the years, he was losing hope of ever finding out what happened to his Amestris, sadness settling into his heart.

He was about to give up, with the thought that his friend might be as good as gone, until one day.

He was in New York City, wandering around his twin brother's city with Kumajirou to kill some time since he wasn't due to meet America for about two more hours when he passed by a playground.

Like all playgrounds, this was also filled with shrieking children, accompanied by the parents or guardians as they enjoyed the sun.

However, one sight stood out from him the most.

Canada blinked, before taking his glasses off and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt before replacing them back on the bridge of his nose. That... Didn't seem possible. Was that America?!

The American was indeed there, at the swings and pushing a small child who shrieked with joy as the exhilaration of the speed of the swing caught up to him.

"Higher!" The small boy cried with joy, wind whipping at his hair.

"Sure, the hero will do that!" America reflected the younger boy's joy, mouth set in one of his trademark grins that looked like it could blind someone with just how bright America's teeth were. "Just don't fly off, alright Amestris?"

Canada froze. Amestris. Moving closer, Canada could see the boy's features clearly. Those features clearly belonged to his missing friend.

Just then, as America slowed the swing so Amestris could get off, Amestris's head snapped up, his golden eyes locking with Canada's own blue ones.

"Alfie! That guy looks like you!" Amestris exclaimed, pointing at Canada.

"Huh? What guy? Where?" America asked, squinting hard in Canada's direction before catching sight of the usually forgotten nation. "Oh! That's my bro Canadia, or Mattie, as I call him! Hey, when did you get here anyway, bro?"

"I'm Canada... And I've been here the whole time..." Canada mumbled, dejected, as his voice was drowned out by the shrieks of the children.

Amestris grinned, happiness displayed right out for Canada to see. "Hello Mattie! I'm Amestris!"

Canada smiled shyly, burying his face slightly into Kumajirou's soft fur. "Hello... Amestris."

Funny... He didn't feel so sad anymore.

 **[A/N Whew, this chapter was hard to write! Especially since I have never ever written for Canada and France! Theirs was especially hard to write for, so I have no idea if I got their character right. By the way, England is probably going to get the most screen time, besides Ed/Amestris since England is my favorite character from Hetalia, followed closely by America.**

 **This chapter is unbeta'ed.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter, so please tell me what you think!**

 **~Gwntan12]**


	3. From their Side

The time, was 1914, the day of the Solar Elclipse.

It was just bare moments after the Fullmetal Alchemist had disappeared in a blaze of Alchemical blue light. No one dared to breath, as they looked on with hope with anticipation of the return of the Elric brothers. Once they returned, Izumi mentally promised to herself to drag the two of them to a hospital, whether the older one liked it or not, and tearful reunion be damned. That could wait.

As a dazzling blue light lit up in the middle of the circle Edward had drawn only minutes prior, for what was hopefully the last time, Izumi squinted at the light, hoping to catch a glimpse of her idiot ex-apprentices, feeling far too impatient to wait for the light to die down even if she knew she was possibly going to blind herself by staring at the light for too long a time.

Luckily, Izumi didn't have to wait long, for a few seconds later, the light dimmed to a glow, before dying out completely. A lone bundle lay in the middle of the circle. Next to her, Hohenheim swallowed. One of his sons hadn't come home. Who it was, was the next question. Was it his eldest son? Or was it his youngest? Fear wracked his mind. He had failed to protect his sons. Why hadn't Edward listened to his offer to sacrifice himself? What would Trisha say to him?

The bundle shifted slightly, before a shine of gold peeked through the cloth.

Making his way to the center of the circle, Izumi supporting him there, Hohenheim nearly cried when he saw his youngest son, his human son. No more of the cold metal armour that had been Alphonse's body for years. His eldest son had done it. But where was he?

"Alphonse...?" Hohenheim said cautiously, as said person's eyes fluttered open, blinking in recognition as he caught sight of his father.

"D-dad...?" He asked, Hohenheim noting the distraught tone in his voice.

"Yes, it's me, Alphonse."

"Dad... Edward, he..." Alphonse choked out, tears brimming in his eyes as his father brought him into a hug. "He's still out there, I need to find him! I promised him!"

Further away, although close enough to hear the exchange, Mustang's brows furrowed in sadness. Even after so many years, fate seemed to like to mess with the brothers.

He could hear Hawkeye muttering under her breath, possibly her own thoughts on the matter at hand. Although he was now blind, even he could sense the sadness radiating off the Lieutenant.

The previous battleground fell silent, in respect for the Fullmetal Alchemist.

 _"I'm sorry Trisha, wait for me, just a little longer..."_

0o0

It was the year 1915, Autumn.

Alphonse had healed up nicely over the course of the last few months, although he had constantly insisted he needed to get out and look for his brother, who may or may not be alive on the word of the Truth. Although it probably wasn't the smartest thing to believe the Truth, Alphonse was determined to cling onto whatever lead he had on his brother.

Winry looked on sadly as Alphonse picked up his suitcase, everything he needed for his journey packed inside.

"So... You're really leaving?" She asked, Alphonse pausing in the pulling on of his shoes.

"Yeah, I am." He smiled back. "After all, brother is out there somewhere, waiting for me. The Colonel said he was going to help me however he could. Mr Zanpano and Mr Jerso said they were going to help me too."

"Hey, Al?"

"Yes?"

"What if... Ed really is... You know..."

"Of course not!" Winry's head snapped up, shocked by Alphonse's sudden outburst. "Brother isn't die! I can feel it! Our souls are still connected, and I can feel his somewhere out there! I just need to find him!"

"You're right... Ed can't die! He's looked at death in the face and insulted it too many times!" Winry joked, trying to lighten the mood before she was serious once again. "Just... Be careful out there, alright? And once you find Ed, drag him back here so I can yell at him for ruining my Automail, alright?"

"I'll be sure to do that!"

The last Winry saw of him that day was his back against the sunlight.

0o0

The year was 1918, Spring.

Mustang had slowly been climbing up the ranks to become Führer in order to change the country, just like he had promised to Doctor Marcoh when he had healed his eyes and given him back his sight.

As of now, he held the rank of a General, and Ambassador for Foreign Affairs, the last no thanks to the senile old man also known as Führer Grumman.

Who gave Grumman that idea? Mustang just couldn't wait for the day he became Führer. Aside from changing the country, he'd have more people to boss around. Not to forget changing the female military uniform to have tiny miniskirts.

Goung back to the point, being the Ambassador for Foreign Affairs meant that Mustang would have to constantly leave the country whenever the situation called for it. He had already been out of the country to deal with trading businesses with the other countries several times to discuss with the other Ambassdors.

However, he did notice something strange, thanks to him being more appreciative of his eyesight which allowed him to notice other things he had never have bothered noticing before.

Whenever he was in the Government building in any country, he'd always notice either a young lady or man, more of the latter, walking around. They might have been Government officials, but their choice of clothing and strange mannerisms seemed to contradict that thought. Plus, they always had a certain... Feeling to them.

Also, upon asking some of the staff, they'd always have a small, secret smile of amusement play out on their lips as they always say the same thing. "Someone special."

Now, he was in England.

The man he met here appeared to be in his early twenties. He had mop of blond hair that fell messily, and he had the hugest pair of eyebrows Mustang had ever seen on a person. The strangest thing however, was that his forest green eyes looked far too old on his person. Mustang would have expected those kind of eyes on an extremely old man, who had seen too much of war.

He had spoken once to the man, who had introduced himself as Arthur Kirkland. Arthur had seemed surprised that Mustang was from Amestris, before chuckling, as if laughing at an inside joke that only he knew of.

He later explained that his adopted brother was from Amestris, and Mustang would probably 'see him soon in the near future', as he had put it, if he didn't resign in the Government business in next twenty or so years.

Mustang never did get an explanation out of Arthur, who only smiled secretly. "You'll find out in due time." He said.

As Arthur left, Mustang felt that, somehow, he already knew who Arthur's brother was.

Like he had already known him his whole life.

0o0

The year was 1920, Autumn.

Führer Grammar abolished the non-marrige law between two military personnel.

Hawkeye and Mustang were engaged a week later.

Mustang's team was disappointed since they had bet they would have gotten engaged in five minutes, and therefore had lost a hefty sum of money.

Hawkeye was not impressed.

And Grumman... he just looked smug that his granddaughter had gotten hitched.

0o0

The year was 1924, Summer.

It was ten years after the disappearance of the Fullmetal Alchemist. Alphonse, now twenty four years old, mourned the fact he had never found his brother.

Edward, he thought dejectedly, would have been twenty five this year.

It had always been something of a joke between the two brothers, that they would celebrate their twenty fifth birthday with a birthday bash. Only involving lots of Alchemy and sparring.

But it appeared that Alphonse wouldn't be able to celebrate Edward's twenty fifth birthday.

"Hey kid, are you alright?" The youngest of the Elric brothers looked up, seeing Jerso. The man had been traveling with Alphonse along with Zanpano for the past eight years. Initially, the two chimeras had joined Alphonse to try and find a way to return to normal, along with helping him look for his brother. Five years in their journey, they had found a way to return to normal, but they declined in doing so until they helped Alphonse with his own goal.

"Yeah, I am." Alphonse laughed, before sighing sadly. "I just can't help but think that Ed would have been twenty five this year... I wonder how he's doing..."

Jerso shuffled in his spot awkwardly, unsure of what to say to Alphonse since these kind of situations were completely out of his element. He was way better in the fighting business.

"Uh... I'm sure Fullmetal is fine..." Jerso said awkwardly.

Meanwhile, in a different country known as England, a little boy who looked to be about five years old, sneezed.

"Dear me, you haven't caught a cold, have you?"

"Nooo! I think someone's talking about me, since that's what Feli told me!"

"Wait a minute..."

"Bye England!"

"When since have seen Italy?! You didn't even who he was yesterday!"

0o0

The year was 1925, Spring.

A memorial of the missing Fullmetal Alchemist was built in Central City, in respect of him. The people felt that he deserved that much, and more.

Alphonse wasn't as happy, since it made him feel that his brother was truly dead, since memorials were only made for dead people. But since it was made from the goodness of the people, he let it stay.

0o0

The year was 1927, Winter.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland officially signed an alliance with Amestris, after years of trade and sending aid when needed.

Amestris now had two Allies: Xing and England.

0o0

The year was 1929, Autumn.

Hohenheim, after the Promised Day, found that when Edward had punched a hole through Father, thus releasing the souls of the Xerxesians, some had been pulled to Hohenheim's own Philosopher's Stone, extending his life once more.

He didn't really mind now. After all, he wouldn't be able to die in peace if he never found out about what happened to his son.

He was in the USA right now.

While there, he met a curious bespectacled young man who felt... off.

He wasn't human either.

However, the strangest thing was that when the young man saw him, he gasped, and started babbling about how he looked like his little brother.

Hohenheim was throughly confused by the end of this.

0o0

The time, was 1930, Spring.

Mustang stepped off the stage, tugging at the collar of the stuffy military suit he war. It wasn't his usual military uniform. It was the kind for extremely formal occasions.

"How did I do?" He asked his wife.

"Führer, sir, I think your speech was excellently delivered." Hawkeye answered back, a smile tugging at her lips. "Congratulations, Führer Mustang."

Mustang couldn't have been happier.

0o0

The time, was 1930, a week after Mustang's Presidential Initiation.

A letter sat innocently on Mustang's desk, market with the seal of the United Kingdom.

Unsealing the envelope, Mustang read it over, and found that it was from one Arthur Kirkland, the man he had met all those years ago in England, and as it had appeared, the advicer to the Prime Minister of England.

It started off with a congratulations and other formal matters, before Arthur writing that he had someone the newly instated Führer had to meet, but as Mustang read the last sentence, he noticed something strange.

 _I hope you'll enjoy meeting your country._

 **[A/N Woo! That's a wrap! Man, it was so hard thinking up if the different events that followed the Promised Day! It killed me!** **Anyway, now that I've been revived and stuff, I've got an idea which I'm certain everyone is going to kill me for, since it seems as if Ed has renounced Al as his brother.** **So before you brutally kill me, I'll just say the renouncing bit isn't the case! Ed just doesn't remember anything! Also, you'll find what this idea is in the next chapter. Also, no pairings!**

 **Bye bye guys!** **~ Gwntan12]**


	4. First Meeting

"Big brother! Why do I have to wear this when I get there?" Amestris whined, holding up the more formal then usual clothes England had picked out.

"First impressions are important, Amestris." England answered, taking the clothes from the seven year old. "You are about to meet your boss, not your friends."

"But you said the first time you met your boss you hit him in the face with a guitar-"

"That was a complete accident!" England interrupted, face turning a bright red.

"Al said you were imitating a rock star-"

"America doesn't know what he's saying!" England quickly interrupted once again, not wanting to admit that he had actually been trying to imitate a rock star as a dare since that would be saying that he wasn't a gentleman.

"Ok. But Al has got pictures-"

"Anyway! Are you ready to go?"

Amestris pouted at being interrupted, but nonetheless grinned, giving a decent imitation of a salute.

"Aye, sir!"

0o

The familiar scenery of England quickly sped by, before switching to a scenery that was unfamiliar to Amestris.

Buildings were quickly replaced by tall trees, obscuring his view so Amestris chose to look away from the window of their private cabin -Ah, the privileges of being someone important-, looking to converse with his older brother.

"Big brother," Amestris began. "How does my country look like?"

England shut the book he was reading, looking upwards, deep in thought. "Hm... well, I haven't been to your country for a good sixteen years. But the last I saw it, it was a definitely a unique country. There were many places I had never seen before."

"Really?" Amestris's eyes sparked with excitement. "That's sounds so cool! I can't wait to see it with my own eyes!"

England smiled at his little brother, glad that Amestris was so excited. Not too mention how adorable it made him look.

"Alright Amestris, but you have to remember; No using your nation name. Only give that to the Führer and his men. For the other humans you meet, only use your human name. It's been a while, but do you still remember it?" Amestris nodded in response to this.

"Sure I do! My name was... uh, was it Edward? My surname started with a 'K', right?" England smiled slightly.

"Yes, your name is Edward. And your full name is Edward Kirkland." England reminded, causing Amestris to sulk at the fact he hadn't managed to remember his surname, especially since he shared it with England.

"Soo... how long is the trip?" The younger nation asked, changing the subject.

"About a day long Amestris, if there isn't any complications on the way." The older replied, to which Amestris gaped at.

"Wait, then what am I supposed to do for the next twenty four hours?"

"You could rest up, I suppose. Or read your books."

"Darn. I finished them all fifteen minutes ago."

0o0

Meanwhile, in Amestris, a young man of about thirty years old stepped off a train in Central City, flanked by two large men on both sides.

"So, what made you decide to return to Amestris, Alphonse?" Zanpano questioned. It seemed unlikely that the young man would have just suddenly decided in the spur of the moment to return to Amestris.

"I don't know," Alphonse replied. "I don't know. But I don't know why, but I feel as if I have to be here, or else I'd miss something important."

Placing a hand over his heart, Alphonse stared out into the city, feeling foreign emotions that could have only belonged to his brother hit him. "Brother... I can feel you closer than ever... will I see you soon?" He whispered quietly to himself. "Just wait a little more, Ed..."

0o0

Back at the train, Amestris sneezed once, twice, before before he rubbed his nose.

"Have you got dust in your nose?" England asked over the edge of his book, forest green eyes looking directly at Amestris's golden ones.

"Probably." He sniffled. "By the way, how long more are we going to be on this train for? Everything below my waist feels numb."

England dug in his pocket, before pulling out a rather antique looking pocket watch out, flipping the lid open to read the time.

"About another thirteen hours."

"... Nooooooooo..." Amestris whined dramatically, sinking back into his seat. "Why's time going so slowly? I'm going to be as old as Mister China by the time we get off!"

England barely resisted the urge to smirk at the unintentional insult to China's age. "As amusing as that it, you won't be an old man. Even by nation standards, you're still a child."

"But still!" Amestris whined. "This trip is taking forever!"

"Amestris, it's only thirteen, no twelve hours. That's not even a day." England patiently explained, used to Amestris's whining even though it didn't happen often, since he was generally an angel more than half the time. The rest of the time...

England's eye twitched at the memory. The kid could be a devil when he wanted to.

"I need to go to the lavatory!" Amestris suddenly piped up, before dashing out of the cabin door, not even waiting for his brother's acknowledgement.

England blinked, still staring at the area where Amestris had been seated at no less than two seconds prior, wondering what on earth had just happened before he turned back to his book.

Amestris wouldn't run into any trouble on the train, right?

0o0

Once Amestris finished with his business, he flushed the toilet, before going to wash his hands.

As he stepped outside the lavatory, a pang of longing stabbed itself into his heart, causing him to wince and rub his hand over his chest.

For some reason, ever since they crossed over England's border, the young nation had been getting strange feelings of longing, as if someone was calling to him. When Amestris was younger, he had always been on the receiving end of the strangest feelings. However, as he grew older, this eventually faded away.

Well, until now, at least.

Deep in thought as he made his way back to his brother, Amestris didn't even notice someone calling to him until a hand rested on his shoulder.

"Chief, is that you?" A blonde man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth asked in astonishment. The man seemed to be in either his late thirties or early forties, and he was dressed in a military uniform.

"Um... who are you?" Amestris asked warily.

"Don't you know me? I worked with you in the military occasionally years ago!" He exclaimed.

"Um... I'm really sorry, but I think you've mistook me for someone else." Amestris apologized, backing away. "I've lived in England my whole life, and this would be my first time in Amestris."

With that, he dashed off before the man could stop him.

When he finally reached his and England's cabin, he slammed the door open, scaring the living daylights out of his older brother.

"What the-?!" He spluttered, before he finally noticed Amestris, taking in his panting form. "Amestris, did something happen?"

Amestris thought about it. While the encounter was indeed strange, it probably wasn't worth mentioning to England. After all, some people do occasionally resemble their country's personification, even though it was rather rare.

"Nah, I was just trying to see how fast I could run from the toilets to here." He grinned while the Brit just shook his head in amusement before resuming in the reading of his book.

But somehow, no matter how hard be tried, Amestris just couldn't shake the feeling that he knew the man from somewhere, deep in the recesses of his head.

0o0

Mustang sat on his desk, staring at the letter he had received only three days prior that sat innocently on his desk.

Honestly, would it kill some people to be clearer when trying to say or write something?

He sighed, massaging his temples as he felt the oncoming headache. A headache already, and he hadn't been Führer for a month. Talk about breaking a record, especially since it was only seven in the morning.

Hopefully he would get his answers later, when he met this person Arthur Kirkland wanted him to meet. The way he had described the person in the letter was peculiar, with Arthur describing him as someone every leader of a country has.

Mustang had a few guesses, but none of the positions he came up with seemed to fit, much to his disappointment.

"Sir?" Hawkeye asked as she stepped into the office, balancing a large amount of paperwork in her hands. "Is everything alright?"

 _'You're holding a huge stack of paperwork for me to do, of course everything is alright.'_ Mustang moaned pitifully in his head, before answering his wife.

"Of course, but this letter is confusing me." He sighed, his eyes landing on a framed picture that sat comfortably at the corner of his desk. "Not to mention that today is..."

Mustang didn't need to finish his sentence, as Hawkeye's eyes grew sad with realization. "The day Edward disappeared." She finished.

"Yeah." Mustang nodded, eyes never leaving the picture. It was way back in 1911, nineteen years ago, when his team took a new team photo thanks to the new addition, namely Fullmetal or Edward. Edward had been no more than twelve at the time, when he was dropped head first into the military and a life of fighting, all for the sake of his brother.

If there was anything Mustang regretted, it would have been failing to keep the boy safe.

0o0

"Achoo!"

"Are you sure you haven't caught a cold?"

"Absolutely sure, big brother."

0o0

In front of a stone memorial dedicated to the Fullmetal Alchemist, there a young man stood, eyes fixated on the stone. But to anyone else, it would have appeared that his eyes were closed. He wore clothes that marked him as a citizen of Xing, if his distinct Xingese features hadn't already given away his heritage away.

"My lord," The woman beside him started to say, after observing the man's silence which had lasted for over fifteen minutes. "You've been staring for fifteen minutes. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everything is alright Lan Fan." Ling answered. "It's just that... It's been sixteen years since Ed..." He sighed. "I wish he had used the Philosopher's Stone when I offered it to him."

Lan Fan, wishing to change the topic to keep the Emperor of Xing from feeling upset, asked, "How has Xing been?"

Ling understood his bodyguard's intentions, but he went along with it anyway, a smile creeping onto his lips. "Acting like an old man, just like always. And he looks younger than me, too! Someone ought to tell him that it's strange when he acts like an old man."

When Ling had first become the successor to the throne, his father had called him in to meet someone.

That someone, was a young man of about twenty four years old. He was dressed in traditional, silken robes of Xing, representing his high status. His dark hair which was the same shade as Ling's was pulled back into a topknot. However, despite however he may have looked like, Ling couldn't deny the enormous amount of Chi that radiated off him. The strangest thing, however, was that the Chi felt just like that of the Chi running beneath his country.

"This is Chen Jie." His father had announced. "Or less known as the Nation of Xing."

While Ling had half a mind to question whether or not his father had gone senile, he definitely couldn't argue with the powerful presence the man in front of him. The presence he radiated was in no way human, so Ling couldn't help but believe that this man, was indeed his Nation.

They had spent time talking after their first meeting, since the personification had to get to know their boss better, as Xing had put it.

Then Ling casually mentioned he never saw a personification for Amestris, when he visited the country.

Xing's eyes had then darkened as he turned his head away, eyes filling with regret. "Amestris... He disappeared sixteen years ago. And I could have done something about it, if only I tried."

Although he hadn't mentioned it outright, Ling could tell that Xing had cared for Amestris, if only subtly.

Then, they had moved onto the subject of Ling's trip to Anestris in his search for immortality, to which Xing had scoffed at the word 'immortality', shaking his head as he muttered something about foolish youngsters.

Everything went smoothly from there, until Ling had mentioned meeting two brothers who had a Xerxian ancestry. At first, Xing had only seemed mildly intrested about the Elrics, but once Ling had started to describe Edward, the nation had sat up straight, eyes wide.

"Run that by me again." Xing had commanded, face pale.

Repeating the description, Ling watched as Xing got up and started pacing across the length of the Drawing room, muttering to himself incessantly.

"What's so interesting about Ed, anyway?" Ling asked, mystified at his Nation's reaction to his currently MIA friend. "His Chi was completely normal, and there was nothing too shaking about him. Aside from his height complex and the color of his hair and eyes."

"Your friend, has the exact same looks as I remember Amestris had." Xing had replied.

Ling frowned, deep in thought. Although it was strange to think Edward might have been the missing personification of Amestris, it seemed rather unlikely. Master Alchemist or not, he had the Chi of a human. Also, hadn't Xing mentioned that when a Nation loses an appendage of any kind, it would eventually grow back? And Ling was certain that Edward was missing two limbs.

Voicing this thought, Xing finally stopped, laughing sheepishly as he stated he might have been over thinking things, before they continued chatting as if nothing had happened.

But Ling had yet to shake the feeling that Xing's beliefs had some truth to them, even after all those years of working with him.

"Well then," Ling said as he turned away from the memorial. "Let's go Lan Fan. We still have time before we're due to meet Führer Mustang."

"Yes, my lord."

0o0

"Freedom!" Amestris yelled as he decided to forgo using the train door as soon as the train halted in the station of Central City, choosing the fun way of exiting though the window, much to England's exasperation.

"Ame- Edward! Not the window, I've told you multiple times to use the door like a civilized person!" England yelled after the smaller nation, switching to his human name since they were in public.

"This is place is awesome!" Amestris yelled, apparently not having heard a single word that his older brother had said, too busy admiring his Capital as the occasional passerby shot him strange looks. Then again, England couldn't actually blame Amestris for his over excitement, seeing as how he was stuck on a train for twenty four hours, before they had to switch trains upon reaching Amestris's border and sit through another two hours of watching the scenery pass by.

Needless to say by the end of it, Amestris had been far too fidgety to sit still.

Not to mention how unhappy he had been when England made him go take a shower on the train and wrestle him into the uncomfortable clothes, before they got off the first train.

As England collected his and Amestris's bags and exited the train like the proper gentleman he was, the latter busied himself with running about like a kid on sugar as he took in all the sights.

Eventually, England decided to stop Amestris and did so as he ran by, grabbing hold of him by the back of his collar.

"Edward, behave yourself." England reprimanded the small boy, who pouted but did as England asked.

"Big brother, what are we going to do now?" Amestris asked his big brother, gripping his England's hand his own.

"We'll be going to see your Führer." He answered, pointing at the large building at the center of the city which appeared to be Central City's military HQ. "Remember your manners when you meet him, Edward."

"Aye sir!" Came the ever so earnest reply.

0o0

The walk to Central HQ was a rather uneventful one, but the people as they could see we're quite friendly. That was something that had changed in the past sixteen years, England noted to himself.

They were let past the entrance gates as soon as England had pulled out his permission, and as they walked through the building, Amestris noticed the glances thrown in his direction, making him feel nervous as he held onto England's hand tighter.

Minutes later, they stood in front of two large, grand oak doors, butterflies building up in Amestris's stomach.

"Are you ready Amestris? After all, this is the first time you'll be meeting your boss." England gave his little brother a reassuring smile.

"Kind of... But what if he doesn't like me?" Amestris asked nervously, shuffling on his feet slightly.

"He'll like you, I'm that certain. You've met many people before, and all of them thought you were adorable. I'm sure your boss will too." England wasn't joking either. Every single human and animal Amestris had met had simply loved him. Might have been because of his child appearance, but that wasn't the point. "But don't worry. I'll do the talking first."

Amestris, despite looking unconvinced, nodded slowly as England held up a clenched fist to one of the oak doors before rapping it sharply against the wood. A clear voice rang out loudly.

"Come in."

Ah, why did the voice sound so familiar?

England took hold of the door handle of one of the doors, pushing it open and stepped in, Amestris quickly hiding behind him. The person sitting at Führer's seat was a man with dark hair that hung in an unruly fashion over his eyes. He appeared to be his his mid forties at the most.

Despite his apparent aging, there was no mistaking that this man was the one England had met many years ago.

"Good day, Führer Mustang." England greeted with a slight bow.

"Yes. Good day. You're Arthur Kirkland, I believe? You haven't changed at all from fourteen years ago." Mustang greeted back.

"I tend to get that a lot."

0o0

"So, who was that you wrote about in your letter, that you wanted for me to meet? You weren't particularly clear." Mustang asked, getting straight to the point and the main reason they were having this meeting. That, and the fact he really didn't like being kept in the dark. It was annoying being the one who had less information.

"Ah yes." Arthur said. "But first, I'd need to tell you something which all country leaders must know. That's the second reason I'm here."

"What must I know? Grumman mentioned nothing of this sort to me." Mustang said, all the while trying to rack his brains as he thought back to all the conversations he had with his predecessor.

"I wouldn't be surprised. I couldn't give him my kind's secret when this countey's representation was unable to meet him in person." Arthur answered.

"Your kind?"

He nodded. "I'm what you would call the representation of a country. My official name is The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northen Ireland. Us nations live as long as the country we represent exists, so we have been around for a very long time."

Mustang paused, trying to wrap his head around the idea of personified nations he had seen some crazy things before, but the idea was more absurd than the idea of a Homunculous. But the Homunculous' existence was a fact, despite how unreal it seemed. So what was stopping the idea of Personified countries?

"I see..." Mustang said, trying to keep up his calm composure.

"You have been taking this rather well." England commented offhandedly. "It usually takes me longer when I try to convince my own bosses. I'm sure Amestris is glad he doesn't have to convince you."

"Amestris? This country has this... Personification as well?" Mustang asked, curious to see who the supposed personification of his country was.

"Yes, and that's who I want to introduce you to." Arthur stepped to the side, revealing the smaller boy who had been previously been hidden behind his back, giving Mustang a clear view of him.

The Führer felt his eyes widen as soon as he caught sight of the boy's features. There was no way...

"Hello." The Fullmetal lookalike smiled, trying to look confident. "It's nice to meet you, Führer Mustang. I'm Edward Kirkland, but you may call me Amestris."

[A/N How'd I do guys? I'm not even sure whether this is good enough to be posted! Hahaha ha ha... So anyway, Mustang meets Edward/Amestris. Ohhhh... This is going to be good! If Mustang's reaction is funny, imagine Alphonse's! And Winry's! Wow, I feel so evil... Anyway, all that aside, it can be seen that I've added some OCs (No matter how much I hate them), the countries surrounding Amestris because it'd be weird if some random countries didn't have a personification to speak of. I don't plan on them having much importance in the story, but if they do, it'd be more of the, oh I'm sorry I was such an ass to you back then, kind of thing. As for the other countries in Hetalia, I might give them some screen time, but it's going to be mostly the G8+Canada. Out of all of them, it's definately the FACE family getting the most screen time. And they'll come in the later chapters, France, America and Canada.

As for Ed, he's acting OOC because he didn't have the hard life he grew up with as both a Nation and Human. Plus, he doesn't remember those lives. So basically, Ed is acting how I think he would have if he had a good childhood.

This chapter has not been beta'ed.

Thanks for reading this, guys~

~ Gwntan12]


	5. Xingese Encounter

After that, everything seemed to pass so quickly. Words flew over his head, and Mustang barely got anything done, even long after the duo of Nations has left the office in order to get Amestris familiarized with the country.

Personified countries. How absurd. But despite that, the proof stared at him right in the face. Mustang would know. After all, he had been the one to go and dig in the archives after about fifteen minutes of not getting anything done, especially with this issue nagging at him at the back of his mind.

Mustang had already poured over half the information in there, specifically the ones regarding British history. If he could just find some proof, anything, even a picture, that would more than likely set his mind at ease.

Needless to say, no matter how composed he had been acting previously, Mustang was not taking this new information well. Especially since one of them looked just like his missing subordinate. It couldn't have just been a coincidence.

But... It was just impossible. Although the chances of him being Fullmetal was extremely high, what were his next moves? And if he really was Fullmetal, then what could Mustang do? This Edward Kirkland clearly didn't know who he was, apart from knowing that he was the Führer which was very obvious, and acted extremely civil towards him, with no hidden hostility beneath his actions.

If Edward Kirkland truly had no memories of them, how would Alphonse take this? Especially if the youngest Elric brother found out that his brother had someone else now, he'd be heartbroken. It was a good thing that Alphonse was traveling in Germany right now...

Mustang trailed off at this thought in shock. Why was he already assuming that Edward Kirkland was Edward Elric? It wasn't good to make assumptions like that. He needed more information before he assumed anything. But as Mustang returned to the books, he already knew the truth subconsciously.

After all, there are no such things as coincidences in this world.

0o0

"Big brother, where are we going now?" Amestris asked his elder brother curiously after they stepped out of Führer Mustang's office.

"We're going to let all that information sink into your Führer's head, so for now we'll be familiarizing yourself with your country. Well start off with Central City, before we head down far South. From there, we'll go upwards." England gave his travel plans to the younger Nation who looked positively excited at the thought of a road trip.

For some unknown reason, Amestris adored going on road trips, much to England's confusion. He had especially enjoyed the last one America had taken him on -without England's consent for obvious reasons- across the said nation's large continent. England would never understand how they eventually ended up in Seychelles's country after a couple of weeks, especially so since they were traveling by jeep.

Exactly how does one cross the ocean in a jeep, without aid of any water related vechicle, in precisely two weeks reach Seychelles? Neither of the road trippers were willing to spill their secret, much to the Brit's irritation. Pity Seychelles didn't know either when he had asked her upon arriving to pick his two younger brothers up.

"Yay! Road trip!" Amestris cheered, bringing England out of his thoughts. "Can Al come along? It'll be so fun! I mean, the last time we went wrestling with an alligator!"

 _What?_

"Oh wait... I don't think I was supposed to tell you that..." Amestris trailed off, adopting a thoughtful look before shrugging dismissively. "Oh well. Too late."

England had yet to process the newly acquired information that his youngest brother had just supplied him with. Maybe it would be for the best not to question the crazy antics he had to deal with almost every week, courtesy of one American and one Amestrian...

Honestly, why had he ever let America babysit Amestris when he was younger? The results were clearly disastrous, since England now had an America number two running around now.

Once he finished with whatever he had to do, England had a certain American to hunt down.

0o0

Alphonse was in Central City's Military Headquarters, with the intent to go and congratulate his brother's former commanding officer, and possibly catch up with him about the current affairs. Jerso and Zanpano were probably pigging out at some restaurant, so it was a perfect time for Alphonse to give his congratulations to Mustang. It had been a few years since Alphonse had been in Amestris, and longer since he had actually spoken to Mustang directly.

Also, Alphonse needed to speak with Mustang about the soul connection he held with his brother, since Alphonse could feel it getting significantly stronger with each step he took. Could it mean that his brother was near...?

Alphonse yelpled as a small blur shot past him, brushing against his side as the child shot past him at nearly impossible speeds, only slowing down slightly to yell an apology. The youngest Elric brother jumped, partially from shock, but mainly because his soul connection with Edward suddenly felt... Complete. Like how it had felt when his brother was there. He would know. After years of feeling so empty, he felt full again. However, the feeling was quickly fading away and no matter how hard Alphonse tried to grasp hold of it, it slipped away like smoke between his fingers.

He could only stare wide eyed back at the direction in which the small child had ran.

Now that Alphonse thought about it, didn't the child have blond hair that was exactly the same shade that his brother did?

Blinking, he shook his head, abandoning all prior thoughts. No, it couldn't be. He was probably just imagining things, especially since today was the day his brother gave up everything for him.

As another man ran past him, this one looking at least seven years younger than Alphonse, the youngest Elric brother made his way to Mustang's office, oblivious to the fact that the newly instated Führer was drowning himself in books somewhere in the vast archives.

0o0

Ling was on his way to his meeting with Mustang -Lan Fan was somewhere in the shadows and keeping watch for any threat towards her Emperor- where he would give the customary congratulations to him. Also, he had plenty of trade to discuss, since Ling recalled there being a minor situation over the trading routes, where the **** bandits in the desert seperating their countries kept robbing the traders of their goods.

Don't those barbarians know how much paperwork they were causing him?!

All of a sudden, Ling was yanked out of his thoughts as he sensed Chi that felt as strange as Xing's Chi had. It was powerful, and demanded attention from those who could feel the presence of Chi. However, it had the distinct feel of something almost nostalgic. Who did it remind Ling of...?

Furrowing his brows, he concentrated on the Chi, before his eyes widened enough to be able to see his eyes. Was it... Edward's?

Without even thinking, he started moving in the direction of the Chi as if in a trance. He just had to know.

"My lord," Lan Fan announced her arrival as she nimbly appeared at the Emperor's side.

"Lan Fan, do you sense that?" Ling asked, staring off into the distance in the direction of the Chi. "It feels like Ed's, only stronger..."

"Yes, my lord." Lan Fan replied from behind her mask. No matter how much she tried to mask her emotions as her training taught her, Ling could still sense her urge to start running to see who was giving off the familiar Chi. Lan Fan wouldn't ever admit it, but Edward Elric had sort of become a comrade in arms to her, through the last battle with the Homunculous.

Moving closer to the source of Chi, Ling was still unable to see anything that could belong to the Fullmetal Alchemist. No red coat or anything bright and flashy that Edward liked to don. However, Ling was only looking at the adults, and not the children. If he had, he would have noticed a certain someone earlier.

"My lord." Lan Fan shakily lifted up a hand, pointing at something. Following the imaginary line her hand drew, Ling almost immediately caught sight of a familiar strand of blond hair sticking up.

It belonged to a small boy who was sitting on a park bench, a tiny kitten purring affectionately on his lap as the boy stroked the kitten's fur. Ling drew in a shaky breath. All that Chi seemed to be centered around that boy, and it didn't seem like a coincidence that his likeness was too similar to that of the Emperor's missing friend.

"Kitty~" Ling heard Edward's lookalike giggle. "I wonder if big brother will let me bring you home?"

Just then, the small boy's head snapped up, a beaming smile etched onto his face as he caught sight of an adult that Ling recognized as England, if the large eyebrows Ling remembered seeing on him the last time they had met weren't a dead giveaway.

Why hadn't be sensed England, anyway? Oh right. Xing had once mentioned that nations who could harness supernatural powers had a tendency to mask their presence in order to blend in better.

"Big brother! I found a kitten!" The small boy grinned happily. "Can I keep him? Please?"

England frowned slightly, his gaze switching between the kitten and his little brother's face before he finally cracked, face turning slightly red. "W-well... If you can take care of him... Then by all means, go ahead."

"Yay!" The younger hugged his brother. "I love you big brother!"

Just then, England's eyes flicked upwards, meeting the Emperor of Xing's gaze. His eyes shone with recognition, before he walked over to greet the two Xingese, the little one clutching England's hand.

"Hello, Emperor Yao, Lan Fan." The Brit greeted politely, receiving a smile from the former and a silent nod of acknowledgement from the latter. "I didn't expect to see you in Amestris. What brings you here?"

"Meeting the new Führer." Ling answered. "How about you, Arthur? Taking a break?" He added a bit of a teasing tone at the back of sentence. Since England had literally worked himself to the ground the last time they met, it had become a bit of a joke.

"Not exactly," England shifted his gaze to his little brother. "I'm showing him the country. He hasn't stepped out of my country for a while, so I thought, why not? I had other businesses here to tend to as well."

"Who's your brother? Is he, well, like you?" Ling was obviously referring to the nation status.

"Indeed. This is Amestris. Amestris, say hello." Amestris looked up at Ling, his golden eyes so hauntingly familiar as the nation smiled brightly at him.

"Hello, Mister Emperor!" He grinned, his voice sounding almost exactly as the Fullmetal Alchemist's had, only much higher pitched. "It's nice to meet you! Say, have I met you before when I was younger? Cause' you look really familiar!"

Ling froze as he heard that, barely hearing England lightly lecture the younger nation on proper English. He had never met Amestris before, and even thought him to be missing, like Xing had. So why did Amestris say he was familiar? Was he really Edward? He needed to be sure.

"Hey, Arthur," Ling began, sensing that Lan Fan was as eager to find out as he was. "How did you meet Amestris?"

"Hmm?" England looked as if he was deep in thought. "Well, I met him in one of the forests bordering Amestris -the country, not the personification- sixteen years ago, a few weeks after that civil war. Why?"

"Oh, nothing much." Ling said dismissively. "I was curious."

"I see." England looked at his watch. "Ah, I'm afraid we're pressed for time. I'll take my leave now. Have a good day, Emperor Yao."

"Bye bye!" Amestris waved goodbye to the two Xingese as the siblings disappeared into the crowd.

Ling and Lan Fan stood in silence for several moments, before Lan Fan finally spoke up. "My lord, that boy, Amestris, I believe that he is Edward Elric."

"I think so too, Lan Fan, even if his mannerisms are completely different from Ed's." Ling agreed. "He has to be..."

0o0

"So! How long is this train ride, anyway? I mean, the hero is too excited to see Ed's country! Iggy never let me visit Ed's place, since he's scared I'm going to mess something up! The hero never messes up!"

"A- actually Al, you usually do, eh?"

"Wha? You say something, Mattie?"

"Nevermind..."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Canada... The person who feeds you Kumakichi."

"Ohonhonhon~ I can't wait to see mon lapin Améstre! Angleterre won't let me near him, how mean!"

"T- that's because England doesn't like you that much papa..."

"Mon dieu! Mathieu, how can anyone hate this gorgeousness?"

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Dude, you're weird! And where'd that rose come from?"

"I carry one everywhere, Ameriqué~"

"Yeah, yeah! Anyway! How long more before we get there?"

"A- about twenty hours more, Al..."

"Say what?"

"Maple..."

[A/N GUESS WHO'S BACK?! Gwntan12 reporting! And guess who's appearing in the future chapters! It's pretty obvious. I mean, who else calls himself a hero and England 'Iggy'? And who says 'eh' and 'maple'? And who talks in an obnoxious French accent? No offense, but France's accent really sounds exaggerated in the dub for Hetalia. And for some reason, it's possible for me to act like America, Canada and North Italy at the exact same time, as my good friend told me in school! Ok, that's off topic.

Anyway, sorry if some characters are slightly OOC, but hey, it's been like sixteen years for the cast of FMA so I highly doubt they'd act exactly the same. For example, Ling. Ling is at least thirty by now. He wouldn't be acting too much like the prince we all know and love since he's the Emperor now, and has been for over fifteen years. He's also an adult, to boot.

Alright, anyway tell me what you guys think and also point out any errors I missed out while checking this thing since my lovely friend/proofreader is currently indisposed.

Bye!

~ Gwntan12]


	6. Hijacking troubles

When Alphonse finally found Mustang, it would have been an understatement to say that he was shocked. "Mustang, sir! What happened to you?"

Mustang's onyx coloured eyes widened a fraction upon noticing Alphonse, an action that didn't go unnoticed by the latter, before returning to normal. "Ah, hello Alphonse. How have you been? I thought you were in Germany." The Führer's eyes kept darting to the side, afraid to meet Alphonse's eyes as if he was hiding something. The younger Alchemist couldn't help but feel a pang of hurt at this, as he felt that whatever Mustang was hiding concerned him somehow. Alphonse would know. That was the same look he had on his face when he tried to hide Hughes's death.

"I was in Germany, but I just got back today." Alphonse answered, pushing away the hurt feelings. He wasn't like Ed, who would press for answers. He'd wait until Mustang was ready to tell him. "So anyway, why do does it look like quite a few books fell on you? Heavy ones, at that."

Mustang grimaced, rubbing the blooming bruise hidden beneath his tousled dark hair. "You're quite accurate. I knocked into a shelf while I was in the archives, and it was just my luck that it was the shelf with the encyclopedias. The hard cover ones."

Alphonse winced, giving Mustang a look of sympathy. "Ow. That must have hurt."

Mustang gave a light hearted chuckle. "You don't say."

Walking alongside the new Führer, Alphonse decided to strike up a conversation of a different topic. "So, how's things in Amestris? I haven't got a chance to look up the recent news."

"A- ah, yes. Well, we've been having trouble in the Xerxian desert, so the Emperor should be arriving today-"

"Ling's coming?" Alphonse asked, eyes glowing with happiness. He hadn't seen Ling for a couple of years, give or take, and quite frankly, he missed the Xingese Emperor. "But wait, why's Ling doing this stuff? Isn't that somebody else's job?"

"In a way, yes. But that person is currently indisposed, and your friend wanted to do this himself." Mustang answered.

"Great! Maybe I'll hang out with him afterwards. But first, I'd have to visit Winry. Could you tell Ling once you're done?" Alphonse smiled, before the smile slipped off his face, his hand reaching up to grip the fabric of his shirt, right over his heart.

Noticing this action, Mustang asked, "Is everything alright, Alphonse?"

Alphonse plastered a smile on his face. "It's nothing. It's just that recently I've been getting these strange feelings. I've been feeling much more complete than I ever have since Ed, well..." Alphonse trailed off, but Mustang understood perfectly. No words needed to be said. However, Mustang filed away this information into his brain. The new information he received only seemed to solidify his theory that Edward Kirkland was Edward Elric.

0o0

"Big brother?" England looked down to where his little brother stood, a map clutched in the smaller nation's hands as the small kitten Amestris had picked up earlier affectionately rubbed itself against Amestris's leg. The two siblings had recently finished their tour of Central city with a record of six hours, courtesy of Amestris, and they were ready to move on to the next city. "The train stop furthest south is south city. But we stopped there already since the train broke down there and we were stuck for about five hours."

Looking over the map in Amestris hands, England nodded. "I think you're right, Edward. I guess we'll skip that. What's the next stop, then?"

Furrowing his brows, Amestris answered. "There are three. One's called Resembool, the other is Hamburg -heh, hamburg. Just add an e and r and it'll be hamburger-, and the last one is called Dublith. Huh... I think Hamburg's station is closed for maintenance, and for some reason, I really don't want to go to Dublith first. So... Resembool?" Amestris looked up at England for confirmation.

England nodded. "Alright then, lad. Resembool it is. Well get back to the other two sometime later."

"Okay, big brother." Amestris grinned, putting away the map as he picked up the kitten from the ground, scratching it's ears. "I can't wait to see that area. I heard it's really nice part of the countryside! Oh, and I heard that it's got sheep!"

England smiled at his little brother, bending to ruffle his hair. "Well, if you want to get there sooner, let us be off, shall we?"

"Alright!" Amestris cheered.

0o0

Jerso and Zanpano would be staying in Central City for the course of Alphonse's visit to the country, in order to give him space for when he visited his childhood friend. Besides, the two men had no desire to accidentally become victims to Winry's deadly wrench, because damn, those tools hurt. Why exactly have the tools not been included into the military's weaponary?

Shaking his head, Alphonse stepped away from the ticketing booth, making a beeline for the train to Resembool. Exactly how long had it been since he last so Winry? He winced slightly at the thought of the wrench to the head he would most likely be getting for not visiting. Granny Pinako would probably sigh, and continue smoking her pile while muttering something about visiting more often.

Sitting down at his seat, he felt yet another pang of longing in his chest. Winry probably was going to feel down, even if she doesn't show it, seeing as how he had yet to make progress on finding Ed. As the train began to move, Alphonse stared out of the window, watching the surroundings blur into a movement of colour.

He just wished his brother was by his side once more.

0o0

Amestris breathed quietly in his sleep, his head leaning against England's shoulder as said nation smiled softly as he watched his little brother sleep. It was at times like this, when England could hardly believe that such an innocent child used to be a cracked nation with a thirst for power, no matter how brutal he had to be to attain it. Amestris brows furrowed in his sleep. "Al... Don't steal the last piece... Mattie... Kuma ate the pancakes..." He mumbled, causing England to give a slight chuckle, before Amestris brows furrowed further. "Huh...? Who are you...? Alphonse...? Who is...?"

England raised an eyebrow, taking note of the name Amestris had uttered in his sleep. Amestris had mentioned that name in his sleep once or twice. When he had been younger, the Brit always had the little nation run to him in the middle of the night, sobbing as he muttered names of people under his breath. But there had been one time, where Amestris had screamed, sending England running to younger's room, where he had witnessed the little boy cry something puzzling, which the Brit had yet to figure out the meaning of to this day.

 _"Al, what have I done?! My leg! It's gone! Give him back! He's all I have left!"_

Once England had managed to calm the hysterical boy down, and asked him what it was all about, Amestris had been unable to give a good explanation as he sobbed, so England let the boy spend the night in his room when he had held on tightly to the older nation. By morning, Amestris had already forgotten the night's events.

England was thrown out of his thoughts at the sound of gunshots. "Wha-?" Amestris mumbled, sitting up straight as he rubbed his eyes, mind still sleep fogged. "Al, I swear I didn't take the firecrackers."

 _"Attention all passengers,"_ A voice that didn't belong to the train conductor rang through the train's announcement system. _"We have taken over this train. Refrain from coming up to arms, or we shall have to forcefully remove you."_

England curse silently under his breath. Hijackers. Right. He had completely forgotten that Amestris still had problems with them.

Footsteps thudded heavily through the corridors outside of the private train compartments, and as England pulled Amestris behind his back to ensure the little nation's safety, the compartment door was flung open.

Just as England began to stand, the barrel of a gun was pointed directly at his head. "Stay down unless you want to get hurt." The armed man sneered, missing the tiny scowl that crossed Amestris's face as he was only focused on the Brit in front of him. A child couldn't possibly hurt a grown, armed man, right?

No, that was wrong. Especially when said child was a country with a large military.

"Leave big brother alone!" Amestris punched the man in the most sensitive part of the body. It wasn't entirely wise to leave such an area unguarded, especially so when there was somebody who was at the right height to deliver such an attack.

The man collapsed to the floor, groaning as he clutched his manhood before promptly being knocked out by the ex-pirate who turned to look at Amestris with wide eyes. "Who taught you that?"

"Al did. He said he learnt it sometime in the eighteenth century from some guy called Prussia." Right. England now had another reason to maim America.

"C'mon big brother!" England was dragged out of his thoughts as Amestris pulled on his arm. "I'm gonna get rid of the mean people and I want you to help me!"

"A- Amestris!" England spluttered. "That's dangerous! I don't want you to get hurt!"

"But big brother! Those mean hijackers are going to hurt my citizens! I can't let them do that!" Amestris protested. England faltered, seeing Amestris's determined expression, something that seemed like a reminiscent of who the younger nation used to be, before he grudgingly gave his consent, turning to the door. "Alright then. I guess I can't stop you. But I'm in front. I still don't want you getting hurt."

"Okay! Then I'm going on the roof! I'll get to the back!" Amestris smiled as he threw open the window, his foot on the ledge.

"Eh?!" England turned his head, just in time to see Amestris's foot disappear past the window frame. He shook his head, sighing. "He's going to be the death of me, one day."

0o0

In the public part of the train, Alphonse sighed after hearing the announcement. Of course. Only in Amestris do train hijackings occur so frequently. Getting up from his seat, he left his coat there and rolled up his sleeves. Alphonse knew he probably shouldn't be doing something so reckless, but thwarting these hijackings had become something of a second nature to him, thanks to his reckless idiot of a brother.

Alphonse smiled softly. Or perhaps he kept on doing this because it was something his brother would do? He didn't know. But still, he got ready to, as Ed would put it, kick some ass.

He tapped the hijacker in the compartment on the shoulder, who spun around, brandishing a gun. "You know, it's not very nice to point guns at people, sir." Alphonse smiled innocently, clapping his hands secretly before touching the barrel of the rifle, transmuting it into a U-shape that pointed directly back at the man's face.

"A-an Alchemist!" The man spluttered, falling backwards on his bum, twisted gun laying forgotten on the ground.

"Yup!" The youngest Elric brother smiled cheerfully, before the hijacker's face met a fist, knocking him out cold.

Brushing his hands off, Alphonse prepared to move on to the other compartments before the sound of the door separating the compartments sliding open caught his attention. Spinning around, hands raised in a defensive position, an accented voice rang out. "Oh, for heaven's sake, I'm not a terrorist, so please put down your hands."

The voice belonged to man who clearly was foreign, if the accent wasn't anything to go by, but his most characteristic feature was the set of thick, bushy eyebrows.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Alphonse apologized. "I'm just a little high-strung right now, what with the hijacking business. I'm Alphonse Elric. How about you?" The man's eyebrow lifted slightly, but not enought to warrant attention.

"Arthur Kirkland, a pleasure to meet you, but I must be off. My little brother insisted on getting rid of these hijackers, and went on the roof. I have make sure he doesn't accidentally blow himself off the train." Arthur made to move, but Alphonse called out to him.

"Hey, if it isn't much trouble, do you mind if I tag along? I was planning on taking on the hijackers as well." The other shrugged. "I don't see any problem with it, so why not?"

With that, the two men moved off to kick some hijacker ass, as a certain short Alchemist would have put it.

0o0

Amestris braced himself against the wind, his hair whipping into his face. He should have been saying that roof walking on a train was hard, but it just felt like a second nature to him.

"Almost there..." He mumbled to himself, nearly falling off again.

Eventually, he reached the compartment where he could tell was the base for the hijackers. Amestris frowned as he noticed the men where his citizens. It pained him to know that his own citizens could pull off such an act.

"... Lost contact with all the other compartments!" Amestris grinned smugly at this. England was fast.

Kicking open the overhead window of the train, the glass shattered, alerting the hijackers of Amestris's entrance.

"I don't like hitting people," Came Amestris's innocent voice. "But you guys pointed a gun at my big brother, and people like you hurt others. You're in for it."

"I- it's just a little kid!" One of the hijackers spluttered. "And he's not even over ten!"

"Yup!" Amestris grinned widely, clapping his hands and placing a palm against the wall beside him, transmuting a short blade. "And this little kid is going to kick your butt!"

Suddenly, one of the older hijackers with a patch over his eye who looked to be in his early fifties, gasped as he pointed a finger at Amestris, who tilted his head in confusion. "You're that blasted runt from sixteen years ago!"

"Eh? I'm seven, so how do I know you from sixteen years ago?" Of course that wasn't true, but Amestris didn't know the guy, so he just assumed the man mistook him for someone else. "Oh well. Ready to get sent to the slammer?"

And thus, the butt kicking commenced.

0o0

"Owie... You shot me." Amestris sniffed, tears pooling into his eyes as he held his hand up, watching the hole close up thanks to the almighty power of nation healing, much to the horror of the stunned conscious hijackers as the wound closed up completely, as if there was never any wound in the first place. The only evidence of there ever having been an injury was the blood.

"W- what the devil are you, freak?!" The men panicked, faces paling drastically, hands shaking as they tried to hold the guns up.

"That's hurtful!" Amestris wiped away his tears, still sniffing sadly. "You people shoot me, and then you call me mean names! My own citizens, at that!"

Just then, a few muffled thumps came from outside, before the door was thrown open, revealing a rather annoyed Brit.

"Big brother!" Amestris ran up to England, his fight forgotten as he pointed a finger at the hijackers. "Those men shot me! And it really hurt!"

"Oh, really?" If England's mood was terrible, it intensified about hundred times more as the former pirate cracked his knuckles, his menacing forest green eyes staring down the conscious hijackers evenly as his protective side kicked in. "So... Which one of you shot my little brother? I'd advise you to speak fast, before I decide to kill of you."

Alright, maybe his protective side also brought out his pirate side, which wasn't actually a good thing for anyone who hurt any of his younger siblings.

They all pointed at the offender, who paled further drastically if that was even possible, seeing as how pale he was already.

0o0

Arthur had gone ahead by himself, feeling worried for his brother while Alphonse held off the hijackers. Alphonse did so because he knew how it felt to lose a brother, and he didn't want Arthur to know the same feeling as well. (If only Alphonse knew)

By the time Alphonse finished up on his side, the train had already pulled into Resembool's station, where the military personnel had surrounded the station, closing off all entrances until they could ensure the arrest of all hijackers.

Alphonse stepped off the train, looking for a familiar shock of messy blond hair so he could thank the Arthur for the help on the train. He also wanted to know if Arthur's brother was fine.

Finally, he spotted the man talking with a shorter blond, kneeling down and cleaning the boy's hand off with a handkerchief, a small kitten curled up near his feet. Alphonse felt his jaw drop in shock. That boy didn't seem older than eight or nine! He couldn't have possibly taken on some of the extremists by himself, could he?

Shaking his head, he made his way over to the two, noticing that with every step he took, his heart felt lighter, and his being more... Complete.

Nearing them, Alphonse felt his eyes widen as his heartbeat sped up in his chest. It couldn't be... He walked faster, hope rising in his chest, all the while wishing that this wasn't a dream.

That smile, hair, and those eyes...

"Ed...?" Alphonse breathed, sounding so desperate and hopeful as vibrant golden eyes flickered up to look at him in confusion.

"Huh? Do I know you, mister?"

Crack. Once more, Alphonse felt everything shatter around him and fall to the ground.

[A/N Hey guys! I'm back with a new chapter! This sure is fun! So anyway, guys what do you think? Alphonse is finally meeting Amestris/Edward! Yay! Anyway, do you guys think I'm rushing the encounters? It feels that way, but I'm not entirely sure. Also, please give me your suggestions in your reviews on how else you want Ed to meet his former comrades and whether or not you want me to bring in other characters- by that, I mean the rest of the G8 and a few other choice characters I can write. By the way, the rest of the FACE family will be coming in soon. Preferably between next the next couple or so chapters.

My proofreader is still indisposed, just to let you guys know.

Bye guys!

~ Gwntan12]


	7. New Knowledge

Time had seemed to stand still, as soon as Alphonse had caught sight of those familiar golden eyes that he knew to well. But once those eyes had widened in confusion, the words escaping his mouth, everything seemed to fall apart.

 _That's big brother!_ Alphonse's senses screamed with every fibre of their being. But elsewhere, in a darker corner of his mind, something whispered to him that no, the boy before him was not Edward Elric. Not his brother, no matter how much he looked like him. Edward would have been around thirty years old. Not seven years of age.

Alphonse pushed down his voice of reason. The Truth caused Edward's disappearance, he firmly told himself. Anything could happen when the Truth was involved. Besides, why else would Alphonse feel so at ease, as if his brother was by his side, if that boy wasn't Ed?

Alphonse didn't feel the tears pricking at his eyes until Arthur started talking, standing up. "Alphonse? Is something the matter? You're crying."

Blinking as he came back to the real world, Alphonse nodded, wiping away the tears. "I'm sorry, it's just that your... Brother, am I right? Well, he looks just like my missing brother."

Arthur's eyes shone with understanding before nodding. "I see. Well, I do hope you'll see your brother again."

"Big brother?" The voice was a few pitches higher than what Alphonse remembered, but was only natural seeing as how it belonged to a child who had most definately not hit puberty yet, seeing the visible signs of childhood on his frame. "Who is that?"

While the question made Alphonse's heart clench, he forced a friendly smile on his face, hoping that it didn't seem too strained as Arthur turned to the boy. "Well, Edward," Alphonse heart seemed to crack further at hearing the familiar name being used to address the boy who clearly did not know who he was. "That's Alphonse. He helped me out with the hijacking business on the train earlier. Come on, be nice."

"Okay." Edward nodded, turning to Alphonse with a smile on his face, although it seemed somewhat shy, putting his hand out for a handshake, although it seemed obvious that Alphonse would have to bend down slightly to shake his hand. "Hello, Mister Alphonse, it's nice to meet you! I'm Edward Kirkland!"

"Well, it's nice to meet you too." Alphonse grasped his hand to return the handshake, only to flinch slightly as a feeling similar to that of a slight electric shock seemed to zap hisheart, before dying down completely, along with the hollow feeling in Alphonse's chest that had lingered there for over sixteen years, since the day his brother disappeared.

Edward's eyes widened a fraction, before he removed his hand from the handshake, a frown coming on his lips as he place a hand over the left side of his chest- over his heart.

"What ever is the matter, Edward?" Arthur asked curiously, concern lacing his voice upon witnessing this peculiar action.

"I thought something zapped me here!" The younger boy complained, rubbing the spot over his heart as though it would do something, causing Arthur to frown in concern for his younger brother. "It felt so weird!"

"I'll see what's the matter, once we find a place to stay for the night, alright?" Edward nodded before reaching out to grasp Arthur's hand, a pang of jealously shooting through Alphonse as he watched the slight display of brotherly love, before he pushed it down.

He knew that Edward Kirkland was Edward Elric. He knew that much as soon as their hands had touched. After all, they had a soul connection, and such a thing never lied. But, no matter how much Alphonse wanted his brother back, who was he to interfere if his brother had a new family and clearly didn't remember him?

However, even if they couldn't be brothers again, Alphonse was fine as long as his brother was happy. He just hoped that they could at least be friends. His lips twitched up into a smile. There were differences between Edward Kirkland and Edward Elric, however. One being Edward Kirkland's apparent like of cats, if the kitten seated comfortably on his shoulder wasn't any clue.

"Well," Alphonse started to say, catching the attention of Arthur and Edward. "If you want, you could stay at the place I'm staying at. That's the least I could do for you for helping me out on the train."

Arthur spoke first. "Are you sure? We wouldn't want to impose."

Alphonse nodded, showing he meant what he said. "Yes, I'm sure. And I'm sure Winry and Granny wouldn't mind either."

Arthur thought about it for several moments, before turning to Edward, as if to ask if it was okay. Edward gave a slight nod, before the Brit turned back to Alphonse. "Well... If it isn't too much trouble, I suppose it'd be alright."

"It's no trouble at all!" Alphonse smiled, his chest feeling lighter than it had been for a long time. "Come on! It's this way!"

"Are there sheep on the way there?" Amestris asked cheerily, following closely behind, kitten perched on his shoulder.

0o0

England would have been lying if he had said he hadn't noticed the look in Alphonse's eyes. After all, it was quite similar to the one he had on for a long time after America declared his independence and left. Alphonse's eyes had been dulled by the feelings of loss and anguish.

He spoke of a brother, who was most likely the cause of his anguish. A brother who disappeared, and who looked just like Amestris. Somehow, England felt that this was much more than just a simple coincidence, and especially so after that incident at the train station.

The way both of them had flinched when their hands had met, had a much deeper meaning than what it looked like on the surface. Amestris complained about a zapping feeling in his chest, as though by an electric shock. England guessed that it was the same for Alphonse, even if he hadn't said anything.

"Big brother," England was brought out of his thoughts at a slight tug at his hand. Looking down, he saw Amestris staring off curiously into the distance, where what looked like the remains of a burnt house stood undisturbed. "What's that? Did someone's house burn down?"

Alphonse, noticing Amestris's line of sight, gave a melancholic smile. "That was my family home. My brother burnt it down nineteen years ago."

"Why? That's so sad!" Amestris exclaimed, confused as to why anyone would purposefully burn their own house down.

"There were a lot of memories we didn't want to remember, so we burnt it down in order to move on." Alphonse explained, tearing his gaze away from the remains of the house to look at Amestris.

"But still..." Amestris started to say, but he never got a chance to finish his sentence, for as soon as they neared a house painted in a bright a yellow colour that had a sign that read 'Rockbell Automail', a rather shrill shriek rang out, effectively cutting off the nation's sentence as Alphonse paled rather drastically.

"ALPHONSE ELRIC!" The voice was clearly female, and one who had some pretty strong lungs. This quickly followed by well aimed spanner to the one-who's-name-was-yelled's forehead.

Amestris hid behind England faster than Italy could retreat. The lady was scary, in his eyes! How was it possible to throw that precisely?!

"HONESTLY! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! IT'S BEEN YEARS, YOU DUMMY!" A blond woman of about the same age as Alphonse stood on the porch of the house. Her fair hair was held up in a ponytail, leaving her bangs to frame her face, and she was dressed in the garb of what England recognized as a mechanic's outfit.

Through her yelling, she had yet to notice the two new spectators.

Alphonse held up his hands in a placating manner, ignoring the new business that was blossoming spectacularly beneath his hair. "I'm sorry, Winry! I was too caught up in my travelling!"

The woman- Winry, if England heard correctly, marched right up to Alphonse, wrench in hand. "Yes, you better be sorry!" She firmly reprimanded him, pinching his ear as Alphonse held his ear, face twisted with pain.

"Ow! Winry!" He finally managed to get Winry's grip off his ear, grimacing as he rubbed his now throbbing earlobe. It was around this time when Winry finally noticed that she had audience.

"Oh, hello." She greeted, as if she hadn't just acted like a demon. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Uh, it's alright?" The way England phrased it made it seem more like a question rather than an answer.

"Oh yeah, Winry, that's Arthur. I offered him a place to stay after he helped me out on the train. I hope you don't mind." Alphonse introduced England to Winry, who gave the nation a friendly smile. "I don't mind. We usually get a lot of visitors, so it's no trouble."

"I appreciate this, Ms..."

"Winry Rockbell." Winry introduced herself. "Just call me Winry. So, what I should call you?"

"Well, I'm Arthur Kirkland, so you can call me Arthur." Arthur introduced himself.

0o0

Amestris peeked out from behind England, curious to see Ms Rockbell up close. Looking at her features, he noted that she was really pretty, almost as pretty as that one female country that Amestris had seen when he had been spying in on one of the World Meetings. Amestris remembered her being called Ms Hungary, or something across that line.

Now that he thought about it, Ms Hungary was a lot like this Ms Rockbell. For one, they both knew how to make use of non-weapons, such as frying pans for Ms Hungary and wrenches for this Ms Rockbell. Secondly, they were both terrifying when angry. Amestris had just gotten a front row seat to see Ms Rockbell's anger, and he had also seen Uncle France get his head smashed in with a frying pan, courtesy of one female Hungarian. Amestris shuddered, bringing his cat closer in a hug.

 _"How dare you break my precious Automail, you Alchemy freak!"_

Amestris blinked as a voice rang through his head, wincing slightly as a splitting pain streaked through his head, suppressing the voice before he could get a good grasp on it. But, he did hear enough to determine the gender of the voice's owner. A female, probably around the age of a teenager.

However, instead of pondering on it, Amestris pushed this to the back of his mind. His big brother had once told him that it wasn't uncommon to hear voices. He embodied the country, as well as its citizens, so it was only natural for a Nation to hear the voices of their citizens.

Amestris was pushed out of his thoughts when he felt someone nudge him. Looking up, England smiled at him. "Come on, Edward. Introduce yourself. It's only proper."

Nodding slightly, he stepped out from behind England, still wary of Ms Rockbell since he really didn't want to have a concussion on the first day of his trip, no matter how fast he healed.

"Hello Ms Rockbell," He began nervously. "I'm Edward Kirkland." He paused, seeing Ms Rockbell pale at seeing him, her mouth agape with her hand slightly over her mouth as what one would expect from a look of shock.

"Ed...?" She whispered, still looking like she had just seen a ghost, before she fainted.

"Ah!" Amestris exclaimed, rushing to support her as he panicked. "What did I do? Why did she faint?"

"Calm down, she's just shocked." Alphonse attempted to reassure Amestris as he took Winry from Amestris.

"That's a bit of an understatement." England commented from the sidelines, seeing that his help wasn't needed.

"Well, I can show you why she reacted like this later," Alphonse said, carrying the unconscious female in a piggy back ride. "Well, after I explain to her grandmother what happened."

0o0

Pinako sucked in a breath from her pipe, before blowing out the smoke. "I see. So that's what happened."

Pinako, despite being over seventy years old, was still as fit as a fiddle. Everything she did sixteen years ago, she still did presently. Mainly running the family business of Automail engineering even though Winry was perfectly capable of handling the business herself.

Looking over shoulder to look at Edward, Pinako added, "Although I can see why my granddaughter would react in such a way. He looks just like your brother."

Moving over to the two who stood somewhat awkwardly near the door, Pinako stuck out her hand towards Arthur. "I'm Pinako Rockbell. Who might you be?"

Arthur returned the handshake, responding to the question. "I'm Arthur Kirkland, ma'am. And this is my little brother, Edward."

Pinako raised an eyebrow at Arthur's accent. "You're not from the country, are you?"

"No, I'm not. I had some business to take care of, and Edward wanted to sightsee."

Accepting his answer, Pinako turned to Edward. "How old are you?" She asked, wishing to test something.

"Seven, ma'am." Edward answered, using the age that Arthur instructed him to use. It wouldn't do well to say that he was over four hundred after all. He'd probably get sent to a mental hospital or something.

"Rather short for that age, don't you think?"

Alphonse tensed, expecting the familiar short rant that never came. Edward simply thought about it, using his hand to measure his height before shrugging, a grin on his face. "I know I'm short! I'm still growing though, but I bet I'll be tall in the future!"

Another difference, Alphonse idly thought as he filed the information away in his head.

Blowing smoke out of her pipe, Pinako nodded before looking back at Arthur. "You're welcome to stay here for as long as you like."

"Thank you. Once again, we really appreciate this."

"No need to thank me. We have to house people often, especially when they come looking for prosthetic limbs." Pinako shrugged off the thanks, before returning to her workbench.

Around this time, Edward entertained himself by looking at the pictures on a cork board. Most of the pictures were recently taken, but he could clearly recognize Alphonse and Winry in the photos. Edward was sure he spotted the Führer and Emperor of Xing in a few of the photos.

One of the older ones, which was taken back in 1914, was of Alphonse and a few other people. Führer Mustang and the Emperor Yao were among these people, but all of them looked like they has been injured in a battle of some sort. Alphonse was in the center of the photo, with everyone crowding around his hospital bed. He didn't seem injured in any way, but he looked severely malnourished, as if he hadn't eaten in years.

"Oh, so you found that photo?" Alphonse asked, from where he was standing behind Edward, giving said person a fright.

"Yeah..." Edward said, before asking the question he wanted to ask. "What happened to you? And why does everyone in the photo look like they just stepped off a battlefield?"

Alphonse laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "How do I put it... Let's just say I had a little accident with Alchemy and for why everyone looked like they just stepped off a battlefield, it's because we fought in a Civil War that occurred in Central City sixteen years ago."

Edward nodded in understanding, letting his eyes trail over the rest of the older ones before he stopped, eyes wide in shock as he was frozen in place.

There, in one of the photos taken back in 1909, were two young boys. One of them was holding a fish that they had caught while the other held a fishing rod over his head. One of them, the one holding the fish, Edward recognized as Alphonse. But the other...

He looked just like Edward, right down to the cowlick that rested atop his head.

"He looks just like me!" Edward exclaimed, pointing to the photo.

Alphonse nodded. "I know he does. He's my brother, and coincidentally, he has the same name as you."

"Woah!" He exclaimed, before he winced and rubbed his head.

"Are you alright?" Alphonse asked, seeing the action.

"Another headache, but I'll be okay." Edward smiled.

"You weren't joking when you said Edward reminded you of your brother. The resemblance is rather uncanny." Arthur suddenly commented from behind the two.

"Big brother! I wonder what Uncle Francis would say!" Arthur's face twisted into a grimace. "Please don't remind me of that frog."

"Okay," Edward grinned, before adding,"But what do you think Al and Mattie would say?"

Alphonse's eyes widened, upon hearing the familiar nickname his brother always used for him. Al. Somehow, it hurt so much hearing that nickname, especially when someone who was very likely his brother was using it to refer to someone else rather than him.

"Who's Mattie?"

"Matthew! You forgot him again! Al is Mattie's twin!"

"Alfred has a brother?" Arthur asked in confusion, before a light bulb lit up. "Oh! Do you mean the Canadian person who frog face raised for a while?"

"Yes! Yay, you finally remembered!" Edward exclaimed, fist pumping the air in triumph. Arthur frowned. "You've been spending too much time with Alfred."

"That's because you're usually either playing chess with the queen, having tea with her, or doing some paperwork for the president." Edward pouted. "Besides, it isn't just Al! Mattie and Uncle France come over when you're busy!"

"You mean the frog came into my house and I never noticed?!"

"Kind of. Plus, I didn't want to give you any more stress. So anyway! I'm going to go have fun outside, bye!" With that, Edward pretty much just zipped out of the room, giggling at how quick he made his exit.

Arthur sighed, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Honestly, that boy is going to be the death me one day."

"He does seem rather lively." Alphonse commented. His brother had been too, before and after they tried to bring their mother back. Only, he was much happier before the incident.

Chuckling, Arthur turned to Alphonse. "Lively, doesn't even cut it. I swear, Edward has the amount of energy only attainable by eating a lot of sweets and drinking more than six cups of coffee. The only people whom I think are capable of keeping up with him when he's like that is a certain Italian that I know of, as well as Alfred."

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but who's Alfred?" Alphonse asked curiously, but paused upon seeing Arthur's eyes darken.

"Alfred, he's... He used to be my brother. We had a fight, and now I don't even think he considers me his brother anymore." He sighed, eyes distant as though caught up in some memory.

"Why don't you try and reconcile with him, Arthur? He's your brother, after all." Alphonse asked.

"We hurt each other badly." Arthur answered. "We might be able to be friends, but brothers? I don't really think so, no matter how much I wish... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pour all that out on you."

Alphonse waved his hands in a gesture to show that it was all right. "No, it's alright. You won't believe how many people ranted at me, mainly because of all the damages my brother caused."

"... I see. Well, I best go and make sure Edward hasn't gotten himself into trouble, since he has a tendency to do that." Arthur said, heading to the front door.

"Well, that's another similarity our brothers have, besides appearance wise." Alphonse chuckled. "They both get into trouble easily."

The corners of Arthur's mouth quirked up into a slight smile. "I suppose you're right."

0o0

Amestris didn't know why he was drawn to the graveyard when he was wandering around aimlessly while looking for some native animals, especially when he was so used to staying clear of said graveyards. Mainly because of those horror films America was so fond of watching, despite being utterly terrified. And it just so happened that Amestris was always there when America was scaring himself half to death, resulting in the younger nation being used a hug toy.

England was ready to go pirate on America for scaring the life out of Amestris.

Trying not to remember the horror film where the dead people pulled the living underground in the graveyard so they could take the living's place, Amestris took cautious steps, following his instinct.

He stopped. Kneeling down in order to read the words on the grave marker, he felt a pang of... Grief?

Why?

 _"Good job! I'm so proud of you!"_

Amestris blinked, before shaking his head and continuing to read the words engraved on the stone. The voices were back again...

"Trisha Elric. 1878 to 1904. A loving mother and wife." Amestris read before standing up. "We're you Alphonse's mother? And did I know you...?"

Amestris trailed off, before shrugging. "Oh well. I hope you're happy, wherever you are."

"Edward!" England's voice called for the younger nation, who immediately began walking.

"Bye!" Amestris waved at the grave, forgetting for a moment how much he hated graves and graveyards, before running off. He never looked back.

0o0

Like they always say, time flies, and by the second day, Edward and Arthur were ready to leave. They hadn't yet finished checking out Resembool, but Arthur had explained they were running on a deadline of two months so they could only afford to have a brief look around, before moving on.

Winry, who fortunately didn't faint anymore after her initial incident, said goodbye while Pinako just took a long breath breath from her pipe while saying they were welcome back anytime.

Alphonse chose to follow the two siblings, his reasoning being, "I'm traveling the country too since I haven't been back for a long time, and it'll be nice to have some company."

As they sat in the train station, waiting for the train to Dublith, Alphonse thought back to the conversation he held with Pinako the day prior, after Arthur had gone to look for Edward.

 _Alphonse let out a sigh of longing, staring at the photo of him and Edward. "I miss big brother."_

 _Pinako, at her work bench with a photo album open in front of her, closed her eyes as if debating with herself, before reopening them, saying, "You know, Ed never was related to you."_

 _Alphonse whirled around, eyes wide. "Ed... Was never related to me? What do you mean?"_

 _"I mean exactly that." Pinako answered, letting her eyes linger on a photo in the album which displayed Trisha and Hohenheim with each other. "I was there you know, when Trisha found him and took him in as her own son. That was before you were born."_

 _Alphonse's mind seemed incapable of processing this new information as choked noises escaped his throat before he finally regained his bearings. "W- why didn't you tell us, granny? Why didn't mom tell us?"_

 _Pinako gave him a sharp look. "How do you expect a mother to explain to her child that he's adopted? Besides, Trisha never had a chance to decide, since she passed on before you two were old enough. When I wanted to, you boys went and nearly got yourselves killed in 1911." Alphonse winced at the reminder. "I didn't want to tell you both, seeing how hurt both of you were. I ended up deciding to tell you and Edward after you returned to normal, but then that idiot of your brother went missing."_

 _Alphonse didn't say anything, so Pinako continued talking, dumping the ash in her pipe out on a tray. "I considered taking this to the grave with me, but when I saw that boy- Edward Kirkland, I believe his name was, I decided that I'd at least tell you."_

 _Pinako looked directly at Alphonse, her eyes staring straight into the youngest Elric's own eyes. "I don't know about you, but I know that boy is Ed, even if he doesn't remember. Only he had that spark in his eyes. But I do want to know. What will you do now, even while knowing Ed isn't really your brother?"_

 _Alphonse looked down for a few short moments, before looking back up again, his eyes meeting Pinako's. "It doesn't matter. Whether we were really related or not, I've spent my entire life calling him brother. We don't need to be related to be brothers." He answered, determined._

 _Pinako smiled, taking yet another long breath from her pipe, blowing out smoke. "When that midget of your brother remembers, remember to tell him to come see me. I have something I want to say to him, mainly because he broke my granddaughter's heart with his disappearance."_

As soon as the replay of the memory in Alphonse's head ended, the screech of the train's brakes signaled its arrival.

"Finally..." He heard Arthur mutter under his breath, picking up his luggage as he prepared to board the train.

"Big brother, is Al, Mattie and Uncle Francis going to come along on our trip?" Edward asked innocently, quite literally bouncing on the soles of his feet because of the energy he had stored up in him.

"Of course not! Times like these are rare, when I am able to spend time with you without the git, as well as that frog," Arthur spat out the word frog as though it left a bad taste in his mouth. "Bothering me! Why do you ask, anyway?"

"That's because I may or may not have just felt-" Edward was cut off as a certain French man bounded off the train, followed by a certain North American pair of twins.

"Ohonhonhonhon~ Bonjour, Angleterre, Améstre!"

"Sup dudes! The hero has arrived!"

"H- hello, Arthur, Edward. How have you been?"

Edward giggled at Arthur's dumbstruck expression. "As I was saying, I felt them cross over into my borders. Hehe! Your face looks funny!"

"BLOODY HELL!"

[A/N Annnnnnnd here comes the rest of the FACE family. Although now that I think about it, I ought to change it to the FAACE family, since we're including Amestris/Ed. So Ed met Winry and Pinako! I really had a lot of scenes for how that would have played out, but I really didn't know which one to choose, so I just settled with Winry fainting. Also, sorry for her short screen time, but don't worry! We'll be seeing more of our favourite wrench thrower. And gasp! Ed really isn't related to Alphonse! Though that should have been fairly obvious. He's four hundred, so he couldn't have been related to our lovely little Elric family. Trisha, being the kind hearted soul she was, found Ed after his little deal with the Truth and raised him as her own son. Anyway, guess who's showing up next chapter! Also, I just thought of a way to bring in the G8, without it being too random, since they don't know about Amestris, apart from everyone's favourite Italian as I mentioned a while back in either chapter two or three! Yay for me! Also, next chapter is when all the real action starts! Oh! And what do you think of the cover I drew for this book? Is it good or bad? By the way, excuse if I screw up on the French speaking. I don't learn French, I learn Chinese! And lastly, have a tendency to switch between nation and human names depending on who's POV I'm doing so please forgive me.

Ok, enough with the spoilers, so bye guys!

~ Gwntan12]


	8. Gunshots in the Night

The train jolted to a start, beginning it's journey as it clattered over the railroad leading to Dublith. Alphonse had to admit; He was feeling really awkward sitting in the same train compartment as the strange assortment of additions to the trip. Edward was looking rather giddy with excitement, chatting animatedly with one of the twins but Alphonse wasn't sure if this twin was Alfred or Matthew, since he really couldn't remember who introduced himself as who.

The other twin was sitting by the window, hugging a- Was that a polar bear?! Alphonse just decided not to the question the oddities he encountered. Too much thought process required, much more than trying to decipher coded Alchemy texts with no book reference.

Lastly, Arthur was busy half glaring, half arguing at the French man while Francis, Alphonse believed his name was, simply just laughed and countered Arthur with ease, as though he had plenty of experience. Which Francis probably did, seeing how hostile the Brit was towards him, compared to the other times Alphonse has seen him.

Apparently, the French man really had a way to bring out the worst in Arthur.

"Al! You know there's someone else who looks just like me?" Alphonse blinked, now listening in to Edward's conversation with the person who he had just figured was Alfred.

"Really, dude? Sounds awesome! So, it's kinda like Mattie and me?" Alfred grinned, quite literally bouncing in his seat. Apparently, Arthur wasn't lying when he had mentioned Alfred had a lot of energy, just like Edward.

"Nope, I don't think so, since he's older than him!" Edward explained, pointing at Alphonse who jumped slightly when the blue eyes of the bespectacled blond were on him.

"You mean your brother looks like Ed? Sweet!" Alfred said cheerily. "I knew that theory of having a twin somewhere in the world was true! I wonder if he's like Ed?"

"Well, my brother has the same name-"

"WOAH! THERE ARE TWO EDS!"

"- And no, they don't act alike. Brother always frowns and has a huge temper."

"Talk about opposites! Ed's temper is like, non-existent! I don't think I've ever heard of anything like that, right Mattie?"

"A-actually, Al..."

"Huh? You say something?"

"Maple..." Matthew murmmered, burying his face further into his bear's fur.

"DAMN IT, FROG! STOP TRYING TO GROPE MY ARSE!"

"Ohonhonhon!"

Yep, Alphonse thought dryly. These people were definitely the strangest he had ever seen.

0o0

Stepping in front of a butcher's shop a certain housewife lived in, Alphonse couldn't help but feel a shudder down his spine as he just stood rooted on the spot, sweating nervously as he felt danger.

"Is everything alright, Alphonse?" Arthur asked, concerned at how Alphonse's complexion had paled to a shade that matched a certain albino Prussian's.

"Just counting down the seconds I have to live..." Alphonse was met with confused expressions, before he was met with a sandaled foot to the face which sent him flying back into a wall. To make matters worst, the wall fell on top him.

Ow. And talk about property damage.

"Well, if it isn't my idiot apprentice. You've gotten sloppy," A middle aged woman with her tied in dreadlocks stood where Alphonse had previously been, arms crossed over her chest. Even though her hair was greying, it was clear that she was no pushover, if her kick to Alphonse's face wasn't any clue. Marching over, she pulled the youngest Elric brother from the rubble, before beginning to shake him by the collar. "Where have you been?! And why have you not found your brother yet?! I want to give him a piece of my mind before I die!"

"I'm- Sorry- Teacher!" Alphonse yelped, each word coming out with every shake. "Please- Don't- Kill me!"

Meanwhile, back with the others who were watching the whole ordeal play out, somehow felt a certain sense of respect for the woman. After all, it wasn't everyday a Nation met a mortal who instilled a sense of fear in them, despite knowing humans couldn't possibly do anything to them that they have yet to feel. And surprisingly, Alfred could read the atmosphere for once. Yes, the woman was that intimidating. Edward just looked pleased that she was one of his citizens.

Finally, the woman stopped shaking the life out of Alphonse, who just collapsed on the floor, his eyes resembling swirls as he groaned, muttering something about armour before he eventually recovered enough to stand up, albeit shakily. "Er- hello teacher." Alphonse laughed nervously, wincing as he brushed himself off. "Are you feeling better?"

Izumi Curtis scoffed. "Of course I am! I feel fine enough to come out here -!" Said person paused long enough to cough out blood, and wipe the crimson substance away. "-and kick your ass!"

"Teacher! You're coughing up blood again!"

Izumi just smiled, her personality doing a complete three hundred and sixty degrees as she slapped Alphonse's back, nearly sending him tumbling over. "Welcome back, my idiot student. Why don't you tell me who your friends are and come in?"

0o0

Introductions were rather smooth, apart from Izumi's initial shock at seeing Edward. Fortunately, she knew enough that this wasn't exactly her other idiot student, seeing how completely unfrightened he was of her. Edward Elric would have been shaking in his boots if he had been there, unlike Edward Kirkland who cheerily greeted her with a pleasant grin.

Of course, since that was the case, and since Izumi had a rather soft spot for children (Even her apprentices, although that didn't show much), she exceptionally friendly towards the small boy.

Sig had been away at the time, getting supplies since Mason had come down with a severe case of the flu.

"Teacher, so what's been going on around these parts? Mustang didn't tell me much about this area..." Alphonse trailed off nervously, seeing Izumi's eye twitch.

"Are you still with those military mutts?" She growled out the word 'military' like it left a bad taste in her mouth. "Have I told you nothing about those dogs? They may have improved slightly, but they'll still be the same, no matter what."

"What's so bad about the military?" Alfred piped up, feeling slightly offended seeing as how even though he wasn't part of Amestris's military, he was part of his country's military.

"You're not from around here, are you?" Izumi asked, although it seemed more like a statement rather than a question. "Then you wouldn't know how corrupt the military is. You don't even know half the things the military has done below the surface."

Alfred then had the decency to wince, and turn away sheepishly.

"If you don't mind me asking, my good ma'am," Arthur started curiously, wanting to know what on earth had Amestris's government been doing, "But what has the military done?"

Izumi grimaced, gripping her cup tightly in her hands, her eyes downcast as she stared into the clear surface of her water. "The previous Führer, King Bradley," She spat out the name distastefully. "Issued the order to eradicate the entire race of Ishbal. And from, what Alphonse told me, the military has also been experimenting with humans using Alchemy." There was more, but Izumi knew better than to blurt everything out.

Besides, how was she to explain about the Homunculous? That information wasn't even released to the public. But perhaps she could let slip another piece of information the public already knew. "They also tried to sacrifice the country's population in an Alchemic ritual, but failed."

Izumi noticed Arthur's face pale slightly as he held on tightly to Edward, who was seated on his lap. She also noticed the different expressions on each of the group's individuals.

Francis's face held a mixture of shock and horror, Alfred looked ready to faint, and Matthew had buried his face in his pet's fur, murmuring something softly as he shook slightly.

How odd it was that all of their gazes always seemed to land on Edward's small frame, Izumi noted.

0o0

England grasped onto Amestris tighter, as if hoping the younger nation wouldn't suddenly disappear. If what Izumi said was true, then it would mean that Amestris would have nearly died.

Somehow, England just couldn't seem to imagine a life without his little brother Amestris, if he had indeed died.

"Big brother, you're squeezing me too hard!" Amestris complained, his face becoming tinged with red. "I can't breathe!"

Relaxing his grip on his little brother, England still constantly glanced down at Amestris, as if reassuring himself that his brother was indeed there.

"Édouard was there..." England heard France whisper to himself, eyes still wide. "It must have hurt for him."

England could only agree, silently promising to Amestris that he wouldn't allow anything of that sort to happen to him again. Not if he could help it. And definitely not while he was still alive and kicking.

0o0

That night, they had dinner with Izumi, who took the time to prepare the food for all of them. Arthur had offered to help, but Francis immediately shooed him out of the kitchen before aiding Izumi with the cooking, much to the Brit's annoyance ("My cooking is bloody well fine!")

Throughout the meal, Edward seemed strangely distracted as he ate, glancing out of the window during occasional points of dinner as though there was something on intrest. His kitten padded softly around his feet, mewing as it tried to get the attention of its owner. Edward had yet to name the kitten so Alfred enthusiastically suggested names, most of which were shot down by Arthur who was sitting nearby.

Alfred had pouted childishly, much like how Edward would occasionally, before proclaiming that Arthur had no naming sense, much to the said person's irritation. Fortunately, Alfred was saved from possible black magic cursing down the line by Edward, who cheerfully added that Arthur was the one who gave Alfred his name, unaware of what he just caused.

Alfred blushed a few shades of red, embarrassed, while Matthew commented quietly with a, "You did fall into that one, eh? Even if it wasn't intended..."

After dinner, Edward convinced Alfred to go outside with him, for three reasons. One, Edward was bored. Two, Alfred was really bored. Three, both said nations being bored didn't bode well for anyone else's sanity. Just ask that one human from England who bullied Edward the last time the latter had been in England. Later, the unfortunate human had been a target for payback, and an entertainment from boredom for Edward and Alfred. Alfred was certain the teenager had still been in therapy the last time they had checked, having nightmares about ketchup, a lawn mower, and apples.

Needless to say, Arthur wasn't too happy with Alfred for bringing Edward into his ridiculous schemes. But then again, it had completely been worth it, so the American hadn't complained much about being turned into a femalefor the day, courtesy of British black magic.

Plus, Edward had been thrilled to have a 'big sister' for the day, so it all balanced out.

Matthew on the other hand, had not been so thrilled.

Francis, on the other, other hand, was absolutely thrilled.

Fortunately, the curse wore off before Francis did anything stupid.

Back to the present, Arthur paid no mind to Edward and Alfred exiting the house as the Brit was busy strangling Francis. Besides, Arthur could at least trust Alfred to keep an eye on Edward. On preventing the younger boy from doing something stupid, not so much since Alfred was equally likely to do something stupid. But Alfred was trusted enough to at least prevent harm from coming to Edward.

But really, what harm could come to the two, when they had done nothing wrong?

Faint gunshots rang through the night air, and Alfred's yell, followed immediately Edward's high pitched scream disrupted the peace of the night.

[A/N And here comes the dreaded CLIFFHANGER! DUN DUN DUN! Ahahaha... I'm evil. So now all the cool action I've been planning starts! Yay! And I'm not updating until next week since I've got to finish up my exams or, to put it very bluntly, I'm going to die. Hahahaha...

Bye guys, I got to go study now, and I apologize for the shorter than usual chapter.

~ Gwntan12]


	9. Only the Start

England was already halfway out of the front door before the scream had even finished echoing through Dublith. Fear wracked his mind, despite knowing nations had virtually no way of dying until their country collapsed, with no one pledging loyalty under the nation's flag. In fact, the only reasons why Prussia was still alive was because there were still individuals who considered themselves Prussians, and because Prussia was more or less East Germany now.

At least there was some comfort to that thought for England.

"Edward! Alfred!" His forest green eyes scanned the area around the shop, looking around frantically for any signs of his little brothers, and just as he caught sight of a small figure being shielded by another, another gunshot rang out, the bullet embedding itself in the wall just beside England's head with only a couple of centimeters to spare.

The Brit tch'ed angrily, his years of fighting experience kicking in as he quickly located the gunman who was carefully hidden in shadows. So carefully, that England might not have noticed him at all if it weren't for the telltale glint of light from the nearby streetlamps off the barrel of the rifle.

Almost instantly, the gunman found an extremely furious British nation bearing down on him, face contorted into a snarl as the gunman was slammed into the wall behind him by the neck, cracking a few of the bricks.

"What," He spat out venomously, eyes filled with unconcealed rage. "Do you think you're doing, shooting at my brothers."

The gunman gasped out for air, clawing futilely at the hand wrapped around his throat. "B- brothers?" He choked out, before his face twisted into an ugly sneer. "Ha! So there are more of you abominations? How sweet!"

England's eyes narrowed further before he tightened his grip on the gunman's neck, wanting nothing more than to kill the man for causing harm to his brothers, causing the man the gasp for the precious gas everyone needed to survive. "What on earth are you talking about?"

The gunman grinned maliciously, showing off his dirty, yellowed teeth. "Creatures like your kind deserve to die like the monsters you are! We shan't be pawns any longer!"

"You attacked an innocent child, and what part of that isn't monstrous?!" England retorted, his anger coming off him in waves. If he had still been a pirate, England would have no doubt have gutted him from the knave to the chops, even though that was Scotland's style.

"What child? He's as guilty as all of you monsters!" England was ready to end it all, just a quick snap of the neck, and the man would be dead. But before the Brit could do anything a hand rested on his shoulder.

"Angleterre, that is enough." France spoke, looking serious for once. "No need to reinforce their image of us as monsters, no?"

England reluctantly released his grip on the man, allowing the gunman to slide to the floor, coughing as he inhaled the precious air into his oxygen deprived lungs. A twisted smile stretched upon the man's face, as a crazed look entered his eyes. "The Nations will fall! We will liberate the world from your kind!"

"Oh, do shut up!" England snapped angrily, as he turned to leave, but no before he gave the gunman a well deserved kick to the place where the sun does not shine, leaving him to curl up in pain as his vital regions died in agony.

Ignoring the man's pained whimpers as France went off to locate a local law enforcer, England made a beeline to where America and Amestris were, Alphonse already having beaten him to the two nations as he hovered around them in concern.

"Are you alright?" Alphonse asked worriedly, gesturing to the scratch just above America's elbow and the graze on his cheek. Said American just laughed off his small injuries. "Ha ha ha! Of course I'm alright! After all, I'm the hero!" He grinned

Amestris clung to America's bomber jacket, his face looking like the embodiment of guilt as he bit his lip and his wide eyes looked like they might start watering any moment. "I'm sorry, Al! If you hadn't covered me, you wouldn't have gotten hurt!"

"Nah, it's alright little dude!" America ruffled the younger nation's blond hair. "Besides, Iggy would have cursed me or fed me his," He shuddered. " _Scones_ if anything happened to you. That's worse than getting shot!"

"Git! My scones are absolutely delicious!" England fumed, storming up to the American. "And how many times have I told you, not to call me that irritating nickname?!"

"Two billion, four million, three hundred eighty nine thousand and seventeen times, including that last one." America flashed his million watt grin at the Brit, whose eye twitched at the blinding grin.

"Bloody git." He muttered under his breath before he went off to check on Amestris, who was still clinging onto America's bomber jacket with one hand. "Are you alright, Edward?" England asked gently, looking the smaller boy over for any bruises or scrapes.

"I'm not hurt, big brother." Amestris answered, still looking guilty as he twiddled his fingers. "But Al got hurt when he covered me!"

"He'll be fine. It's just a flesh wound, and Alfred's had worse." England reassured his brother, although Amestris appeared unconvinced from the way his gaze kept flicking to the scratch on America's arm. Although England refused to admit it, he still cared for America.

"He's right, Ed." Canada -when did he get there?- spoke softly, standing by America side. "Remember? It takes a lot to permanently harm us in any way."

Just then, before Amestris could respond, a loud thump resounded through the night air. Turning their head, the present nations and human were treated to the humorous sight of one gunman getting his ass kicked, again, by a housewife.

"Don't shoot at people while their backs are turned!" Izumi barked furiously, her sandaled foot digging into the man's face as she pushed him into the ground with her sheer strength before she knocked him out cold with a heel to the head.

"Woah, dude," America started to say to Alphonse, his scratches forgotten. "You have one badass teacher."

"You have no idea." The Elric deadpanned back.

0o0

England paced across his temporary room worriedly, mind running at light speed now that he had a chance to think properly. How had that man known about their true nature? It was almost impossible to come across any information on the personifications of each country, and only officials who worked for their governments as well as a few other select humans. So, how? The governments had burned any and all information they could find on their existence decades ago! Of course, there was the possibility of spies, but quite frankly, England had no current desire to soil his hands any further. Besides, the thought of spies was fairly unlikely, seeing as how even nations weren't stupid enough to risk revealing their existence.

They had already seen the risks, a long time ago when the majority of them had been hunted down and burnt at the stake for witchcraft, no thanks to their immortality. This was obviously untrue, since the only nations who could actually be accused of such things were Norway, Romania, and England himself. Amestris too, if his Alchemy was put into consideration.

Humans feared the unknown, and the unknown were the personifications.

"Big brother?" Amestris's soft call caught his attention as the nation peeked into his room before entering, lugging what looked like America's bomber jacket behind him. "I can't find my chalk. Do you have any? Because I wanna fix Al's jacket."

"It's not 'wanna', Amestris. It's 'want to'." England corrected him patiently, switching back to his brother's Nation name since there was no one around, retrieving a thin stick of chalk from his coat before getting down to Amestris's height level. "And yes, I have chalk. It's yours, actually. You passed them to me a few days ago to look after since you were afraid you would lose your supply."

"Oh." Amestris grinned sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head before taking the stick of chalk from England. "I forgot. Thank you, big brother."

Amestris threw his arms around England to give him a hug, before he ran off, presumably to find a decent spot to fix the jacket without vandalizing the floor, or at the very least to find a piece of paper to draw his transmutation circle on.

England couldn't help but smile. Seeing Amestris so innocent made him all the more determined to protect that wondrous innocence.

He wouldn't let anyone destroy Amestris's childhood.

0o0

"My business with Mustang is over~" Ling grinned widely as he stretched. "I can go bother Alphonse now!"

Lan Fan remained silent. After all, who was she to question her lord?

"Not so fast, sir." A hand reached out, grabbing Ling's shoulder. Startled, the Emperor of Xing's head whipped around, only for his eyes to land on a familiar Xingese man. "Oh, hey Xing! What are you doing here?" Ling used the Nation's name, seeing as how it was already nighttime and the streets were quite deserted.

Said Nation's eye twitched. "I informed you last week that I would be joining you later, Yao. Or have you already forgotten?"

Ling shook his head. "No, I didn't. But I do recall you telling me that you would only join me a week later. Its only been four days." Xing paused, before answering. "I did, but something came up. There's trouble brewing in this country, or have you not sensed it? The air is thick with it."

"Hm, it's hard to say. I haven't been getting a good sense of things thanks to England being here." Ling forrowed his eyebrows as he crossed his arms over his chest. Meanwhile, Xing's eyebrows lifted in an expression of curiosity. "England? What would he be doing here? I know that his country and Amestris have an alliance, but there should be no reason for him to be here, other than vacation which I highly doubt."

"He was showing his little brother around." Ling answered, before he remembered something he wanted to ask Xing. "Oh, and by the way, why did you say Amestris was missing when I asked you about him all those years ago? He's been here the entire time. And I even have my suspicions that he was Ed the whole time."

Xing probably stopped listening around the time Ling mentioned Amestris's being in the country, his eyes widening to almost comical proprtions. "A- Amestris?!"

Ling paused, looking at Xing with a bewildered expression. "You don't sense him? While I may not be getting such a good feel of things right now, I can definitely sense Amestris."

"Do you know where he is?" Xing asked, fighting to keep the eagerness out of his voice. He had no idea why Amestris had disappeared off the face of the earth, and that terrified him. He may have acted indifferent to Amestris's suffering when the nation was younger, but that was because his boss ordered him to have nothing to do with Amestris since the Emperor had decided that aiding Amestris would bring no benefits to the country. In all honesty, standing by idly was painful for Xing, especially when Amestris was just a child. And now, if Amestris really was back, Xing wanted to see him with his own eyes.

Ling thought hard for a moment, before shrugging. "I have no idea. England mentioned that he was just going to familiarize Amestris with the country."

Xing wilted at this. "I see..." He muttered before the second piece of information finally registered in his mind. "Wait, why is England doing that?"

"Amestris is England's charge." Ling replied.

"That's... new. Moving on, do you know how to find Amestris?" Xing changed the topic. He could get the details later, but right now, Xing just wanted to know where Amestris was. After all, Amestris really deserved an apology from Xing. If the Xingese nation had stepped in to help the Amestrian nation, Amestris might not have turned out the way he did.

"Nope, other then following his and England's chi." Ling answered, before adding, "Which you can't sense for some reason."

At this, realization struck Xing as he groaned and slapped a palm to his forehead. England must have cast a spell that prevents other nations from sensing him and Amestris, since Amestris's reappearance would definitely raise some questions for England to answer.

Xing opened his mouth to say something else, but before the words could even leave his mouth, a blinding pain rocketed through the left side of his chest, crimson liquid splattering. The last thing Xing saw was his Emperor's face twisted into an expression of horror and shock, mouth open to shout Xing's name, as well as the his own lifeblood staining the ground with it's crimson hue.

[A/N And once again, I've left you guys on a cliffhanger. I'm so evil. And so, I decided to add in Xing to my story. I'm sorry if you have any complaints about him since he's technically an OC. And no, he's not going to be overpowered. He's just there so I can start things off. He may be a recurring character, but in all honesty, he's just a side character who is not going to take the spotlight. By the way, I might have to change the rating to T since I think it's going to get a bit violent from here on out. Also, I have added a poll to my account to different prequels of this story. One being from Amestris's early life, to the events leading up to 1889, when he became human. The second being a bunch of one shots detailing Amestris's time with the FACE family. So anyway, vote which one you want.

And also, thanks to everyone who reviewed. It really makes my day to get a positive review. :)

Bye guys~

~ Gwntan12]


	10. Dreams and Phone Calls

_A small child, barely a year old, cried, bawling loudly._

 _A young woman, early into adulthood, smiled softly in a motherly, cradling the child gently in her arms._

 _"Shh... it's alright. We'll take care of you."_

 _Four._

 _A door slammed shut, enveloping the hallway into darkness._

 _"Your father will be back soon, it'll be alright._ "

 _A tear rolled down her_ _cheek._

 _Splash._

 _Three._

 _"Your father left me some money... Use it, and take care of each other... alright?"_

 _A gentle, yet sad, smile._

 _Life fading away from her eyes._

 _"MOM_ _!"_

 _Farewell._

 _They were left behind._

 _Two._

 _"Al... you won't forget me... right?"_

 _Gold eyes brimmed with tears as one escaped his eye._

 _A sad smile._

 _"If you're alive, somewhere in the world, I'll find you! I won't stop looking! Just wait for me!"_

 _"I'll wait too_ _..."_

 _Goodbye._

 _One._

0o0

Amestris sat next to England on the train, his head pounding from the moment he had woken up. They had departed from the Curtis household a few hours ago, Izumi making Alphonse promise to visit. Moving back to the point, Amestris still had no idea why exactly his head hurt, though. It was just like it had been when he was younger. His head would hurt after a night of sleep, and England had told Amestris back then that he had been woken up by the smaller nation's violent nightmares. The funny thing, was that Amestris never remembered what he had dreamt about, with only the only the headache as proof he had indeed have another night terror.

England had speculated that those nightmares were not exactly normal night terrors, seeing as how Amestris remembered other nightmares, where no headaches were involved England supposed that they were memories that Amestris had tried to forget, but had been unable to do so completely, resulting in the memories resurfacing as nightmares or dreams. Unfortunately, the Brit had never been able to obtain enough of the needed evidence to support his theory, since they had died down soon after.

Amestris never did find out what triggered the nightmares. But now, they were back again for no apparent reason and now he seemed to remember bits and pieces, at the cost of a longer lasting and much more painful headache.

"Penny for your thoughts, Edward." England's voice cut into Amestris's thoughts, making the latter look up at his elder brother. There was no one else in the compartment, seeing as how the others were in the next compartment. Apparently, this train's compartments were kind of cramped, allowing only four people to sit comfortably in one. England just insisted it was just America taking up all the space. Moving on from that, England and Amestris moved to a new compartment, because England wanted some peace (And a break from France) while Amestris just tagged along with his brother. "You've been quieter than I've seen you in a while."

Amestris smiled cheerfully response. "Just thinking about stuff."

He changed the subject around then. "Mrs Curtis was nice, wasn't she?"

England nodded. "Yes, she was. Definitely better than others I've met over the years. Well, if you don't count her beating up of that gunman that is, but I'd hardly pity him at all." That beating Izumi delivered to the shooter was definitely something England wasn't going to forget in a hurry. He had never encountered a woman who could be so nice, and yet so terrifying. Talk about scary!

"Big brother, why did that man shoot at Al and I? We didn't do anything, did we?" Amestris suddenly asked, a sad look casting itself across his face. "He was one of mine, so why? What did I do wrong?"

Sensing his brother's emotional distress, England patted Amestris's back in a comforting manner. "You didn't do anything wrong," He assured him. "That man was... unstable. That's why he shot at yourself and America."

It probably wasn't a good thing to lie about this, but England really had no desire to worry Amestris any further. After all, he was just a child, even if he was supposed to be older in appearance and mentality. A nation of his age, was no more than a pre-teen in the eyes of older nations. What was a few hundred years, in the eyes of nations who were pushing over the age of a thousand?

Amestris smiled, before his eyes went large with what England could only describe as shock. He clutched his chest, whispering, "A nation was killed in my Capital."

0o0

"XING!" Ling saw the body of his nation crumple to the floor, blood splattering from the bullet hole in his chest. How had he not he not seen that bullet, or sensed the shooter before?

The nation of Xing lay stiffly on the ground, showing no signs of life. How was it possible that a nation could die? Were they not immortal?

Beside Ling, Lan Fan hissed in rage, before she disappeared into the shadows, most likely to hunt down the one responsible for Xing's death.

"Xing!" Ling knelt down beside the felled nation, searching for the Chi of his nation which would signify the country's survival. "Chen Jie!"

He concentrated, looking for the familiar Chi of his nation, before he finally breathed a sigh of relief as he came across it, albeit weak, but still there.

Ling needn't worry at all. He should have known that Xing couldn't have been killed with a mere bullet to the chest. What was it that the nation had once said?

 _"A mortal wound to a human is nothing more than a scratch to our kind."_

That was right. Ling had even seen Xing rise from the dead once, when they had been crossing the desert since the train had once again broken down due to the lack of maintenance. It was little after Ling had been crowned the new Emperor of Xing. Back then, Xing had been run through with a sabre belonging to one of the bandits right through his stomach.

While he did get up once more about half a minute later, the front of Xing's clothing drenched in blood, it had been quite a sight to see, since the only other beings that Ling knew were capable of that were the Homunculi. However, unlike them, Xing's wound didn't heal in a crackle of red alchemic light. His healed by flesh rejoining and knitting themselves back together.

As it was here. The nation's wound healed as expected to, but Xing never got up. He simply laid there like a puppet with it's strings cut.

For the second time within three minutes, Ling feared for his friend's wellbeing.

0o0

Mustang looked up from his paperwork, glancing out into the darkness of the night from the window in his office.

He narrowed his eyes. Something foul was in the air, and even though he had no special abilities in sensing things, something told his gut that something was wrong.

It was almost like how he had felt on Hughes'a final phone call to him...

As if the timing couldn't be worse, the phone that rested on the corner of his desk chose that moment to ring loudly, startling Mustang out of his thoughts.

The Führer glared at the offending communication device, despite being secretly grateful for the distraction from his deceased best friend. Talk about déjà vu.

Lifting the answering part of the phone to his ear, but before he could get a word out, a voice spoke out from the other end.

 _"Oh, that's good! You're still in the office!"_ The Emperor of Xing breathed a sigh of relief. _"I thought I might have to wait until tomorrow."_

Mustang's brows furrowed in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

 _"Well, I'm currently in the hospital-"_

"Why are you even in the hospital-"

 _"-since my advisor just got shot."_

Ling paused for a moment on the other side of the phone, before he added. _"Uh,_ _he's the kind specifically assigned to every leader."_

Mustang's eyes widened in recognition. Ling was talking about his country's personification. "Xing, was it? Is he alright?"

 _"Yes, him."_ Mustang could almost hear Ling frown from the other side of the phone. _"And he hasn't woken up yet! Could you contact yours or his guardian and ask him if this is normal for their kind?"_

Mustang started. While he wanted to know how Ling knew he had already met Amestris and England, he decided it would be the best to stay professional. "I don't have a way to contact him or England, unfortunately. I only know that both of them are somewhere in the South, last I heard."

Ling groaned on the other end. _"When I need their assistance, they're nowhere to be found. How about America? France? Um... Canada?"_

"Who?"

 _"Never mind, you probably haven't met them even though the above mentioned are in the country. Well, please call me back if you have any word from them."_

Ling then hung up, leaving Mustang to listen to a dial tone. Bringing the phone any from his ear, he cursed, slamming the mentioned device back onto it's receiver.

Of course it had to be bad news. Why was he not surprised?

Just then, Hawkeye returned to the room, after having delivered the approve paperwork to the related departments.

"Sir? Is everything alright?" She asked.

"Yes, Hawkeye. Although I might need to get rid of the phone."

Needless to say, Hawkeye was confused by this sudden statement.

"Why so, sir?"

"It is nothing but bad news. The Emperor of Xing rang me up to inform me that his advisor's been shot." He informed his wife.

"Which one are we referring to?"

Confident that no one was listening in, since the office muffled most conversations taking place within the vicinity to eavesdroppers, Mustang replied. "The Nation adviser."

Recognition flickered in Hawkeye's eyes. Mustang had informed her of the situation after she had dug him out from under a pile of books and promptly questioned his reasons for digging through the archives.

She did, however, take it for better than he did, with her reasoning being that the events that had occurred sixteen years prior were too considered impossible, and yet it had occurred. Henceforth, there were little things that could surprise her anymore.

Non-Alchemists had it easy, was Mustang's first thought.

But now, Mustang had to ponder about the problem at hand. Why was Xing shot, and not Ling? The latter clearly had more power than the former did, so why?

Then again, these things never made any sense.

0o0

"Has enough evidence been collected yet?"

"No, I'm afraid not sir. But almost." The thin man meekly replied.

"Hurry it up, then." The other waved a hand to dismiss the thin man. "We have a plan to carry out, and the longer you take, the longer innocent citizens are under the oppression of those... creatures." He spat the last word out as if it left a disgusting taste in his mouth.

"Yes sir."

As the thin man scurried away, the other sat deep in thought, a smirk playing on his lips. The world would no longer be in the dark about the invisible hands that played with everyone like puppets on strings.

They would be free to choose their own fate as they wished, with no one manipulating them from behind the scenes.

Once the world knew, they would understand the evil that plagued the earth, causing wars left and right.

The Nations had nowhere to run, when the whole world was against them.

Check.

Checkmate.

 **[A/N Hey guys! So I'm a little later this time, since I got my exams back and my mom kinda freaked out cause I failed Chinese. Again. I don't even know why she's surprised anymore. So yeah, besides that and my undoubtedly late update, I set up a poll on two prequels on this story to be posted. One is detailing Amestris's early life to before Amestris becomes Edward Elric, and the other details one shots involving Amestris's time growing up with the FACE family. So yeah, go vote there and I'll choose the one with the highest votes. And I just realised this is like, Democracy! Woohoo. And I just got reminded of the Presidential Election in America. I think I better start building a nuclear shelter...** **Anyway, I won't be able to update for the whole of December because I'll be off somewhere in the UK. Yay, I'm going to go say hi to England and hope I don't die on British food, because if the Hetalia stereotypes tell me anything, I should be weary. And avoid scones. I didn't offend any Brits here, right?** **Bye guys!** **~ Gwntan12]**


	11. Hatred

Germany was having a relatively normal day. Or, at least as normal as it got when Italy Veneziano was having a siesta on the couch, occasionally saying "Pasta!" in his sleep which was really distracting for the Germanic nation as he tried to be a responsible adult/nation (Unlike Veneziano) and do his paperwork.

Also, did Germany have to add that he was doing Veneziano's paperwork since said nation was being extremely lazy that day? Really, and trying to mimic the Italian's handwriting was hard! Not to mention writing in Italian...

All of a sudden, Japan entered his office, looking uncharacteristically flustered. In his hand, was a rolled up newspaper. The most recent one, Germany noted as he saw the date neatly printed at the upper corner. However, which country it belonged to, he did not know. Although, it did look vaguely familiar.

"Germany-san," The Asian nation began. "Someone has found us nations out."

Germany's eyes widened in shock. That was not good. Swallowing his worry for just a moment, he asked. "And... what has been done?"

Japan unrolled the newspaper he was carrying in his hand and laid it out on Germany's desk.

As soon as the newspaper lay flat against the table, exposing the front page in all it's glory, Germany realized why it looked so familiar. The Central Times. Amestris's newspaper. As for why Japan had it, he had been collecting newspapers for Xing since the nation wanted to keep up with the events in Amestris for some reason. And since Japan had owed Xing a favour, he was entrusted with the happy job of collecting the newspapers once a week. Which wasn't all that fun, seeing as how far Amestris was from Japan. Thank goodness for Nation Hopping.

All that aside, however, Germany concerned himself with what was plastered all over the front page.

 ** _The Central Times_**

 ** _Personified Nations! Are they among us?!_**

 ** _The existence of Personified beings is a subject that has long been debated over without much success among the world's scientists and historians._** ** _Claimed as impossible, the idea was discarded until today._**

 ** _However, recent proof has made itself known from an anonymous source that Personified nations live among us, in every country. Sightings have long been reported for centuries on end, going as far back as the Roman Empire._**

 ** _Are they responsible for the numerous wars waged? The deaths over the centuries?_**

Germany quit reading around then, looking back up at Japan. "How has the secret leaked? The only ones who should have been aware are our governments."

"I am not aware of how our existence could have been leaked to this, anonymous source." Japan spoke, a grim look crossing over his face in contrast to his usually blank expression. "A spy could be possible."

A grim expression identical to that of Japan's crossed over Germany's face. The idea of a spy hurt any Nation personification. It was betrayal to them. However, it was too early to jump to conclusions, despite the high likelihood.

"We won't know this until we can confirm it," Germany spoke, standing up. "We have to go to the source. In other words, Amestris. We have to inform the G8."

Japan nodded. "I'll inform China-san, England-san and America-san."

The Germanic Nation nodded. "Ja. Then I will inform France and Russia."

Right after Japan left, Italy chose that moment to wake up. "PASTA~!"

"Italy! Get ready, we will be going Amestris!" Germany definitely did not expect the response that came next.

"Yay! I get to see Eddie!" The Italian cheered like five year old, leaving Germany to wonder who the hell 'Eddie' was.

0o0

The train screeched to a halt, the brakes sounding much like nails on a chalkboard. England winced at the sound as he stepped onto the platform, the others following closely behind him.

Ever since Amestris's shocking revelation that someone, a personification to be exact, had been shot in his capital, it had been an unanimous agreement among the present nations to head back.

Alphonse was confused, but England made an excuse that he had received a phone call while on board the train that he was required back in Central City for urgent matters. He also requested that Alphonse waited for them because... well, important matters.

Everything was getting so stressful. This was not something England was expecting when he travelled to Amestris's home. It should have been so simple. Introduce Amestris to his boss, familiarise the nation with his country, and then go home.

Just what on earth was going on?

Also, it didn't help that America was complaining about something.

"Good lord, Alfred," England hissed. "Would you kindly be quiet for a moment?! I have enough on my mind as it is!"

"But Iggy!" America whined. "My arm feels weird!"

"Knowing you, you probably sat on your arm and didn't even notice!"

"But I didn't!" America protested.

"Um... guys..." Canada whispered, only for France's voice to completely overshadow the Canadian's quiet voice.

"Angleterre, Ameriquè, we are currently on the move! You can release your sexual tensions later!" France said in his usual manner.

"Guys!"

"WE DON'T HAVE SEXUAL TENSION!" The American and English man yelled, drawing raised eyebrows from people nearby, at France who laughed.

"LISTEN TO ME!" Canada finally lost all his patience before he snapped.

"Canada bro, what gives? You don't normally act like that-" America started to say, before Canada pointed at his brother's arm.

"Your arm. You were shot there, and you've already healed, right?"

America nodded. "Yeah, dude. Why? I mean, I've already healed-"

"Then, what's that, eh?"

The Nations' eyes flew to the area Canada was pointing at, before their eyes widened.

"Holy shit." America breathed, seeing now what Canada was talking about. There, where the bullet had hit him near his elbow, was an ugly purplish bruise like mark that spiralled outwards. It was small, but it was there.

"Mon dieu," France gasped.

England's eyes was fixated on the mark, in almost morbid fascination. But he forced himself to concentrate. The bullet that was used on America had some properties to leave... something on a nation. What it actually did, he didn't know, and he wasn't keen to find out. He could only hope it wasn't something too bad...

But then again, what were the chances of that?

0o0

Ling sat in the hospital room, watching over his unconscious nation. Why hadn't he woken up? Xing should have been up hours ago...

So why?

"My lord, you should get some rest. I'll take it from here." Lan Fan spoke from the corner of the room where she had taken up residence.

Ling shook his head. "It's okay, Lan Fan. I should be here if- when Xing wakes up."

Lan Fan didn't say anymore.

Just then, a doctor walked in. "Excuse me, but I need to change the IV, so could you please leave for a moment..."

Ling nodded, stepping out of the room with Lan Fan.

A few moments went by, before Ling idly commented. "Hey, Lan Fan, was it just me, or did that doctor's chi seem a little familiar."

Lan Fan paused, thinking about this for a few seconds before her eyes widened behind her mask.

She pushed the hospital door open quickly, just in time to see the doctor standing over Xing with a knife, hand raised up high, ready to plunge the blade into the unconscious nation.

Lan Fan threw her kunai at the doctor's hand, knocking the blade out of his hand before she quickly subdued him.

"My lord, this man... his chi is the same as the one who shot your adviser!"

Ling's eyes widened a fraction, enough to reveal his eyes, before they narrowed into slits once again as fury bubbled in him.

"You shot my adviser?!" Ling gripped the man's collar. "How dare you?! He's my friend!"

The doctor scoffed. "They are monsters who deserve to be erased from this world. You can't stop us. We know how to kill them already, so there's nothing you can do!"

With that, the doctor bit down hard on his tongue, doing the unthinkable.

"I don't believe it..." Ling gasped in shock as the man's body fell to the ground limply, blood pooling under his jaw. "This is... this is insanity."

0o0

Alphonse strolled through the street on Central City, looking for Zanpano and Jerso. In truth, he had actually forgotten about the two, what with everything going on.

Just then, he spotted a commotion happening up ahead. Picking up his pace, Alphonse sped forward.

"-Can't do that! That's horrible!"

"Horrible? What about them? They've done horrible things to us, so why not us? After everything, they deserve to die!"

"Hey!" Alphonse called, making the two groups of people look at him. "What's going on here?"

"You ask them!" The person who spoke last pointed a finger at the second group. "They want to defend monsters who've done nothing but kill!"

"They aren't monsters!" The leader of the first group protested. "Why can't you see that?!"

"What are you guys talking about?" Alphonse asked incredulously, looking between the two groups.

"You haven't been reading the papers, have you? Personified Nations exist, and they've been causing wars because of their petty squabbles with each other, and they've caused millions to die!"

"They're personified nations, aren't they? It means they personify the population in general! How they act reflects how their people acts!"

As the two squabbled on, Alphonse felt the fears in his mind turn. Personified nations? How could that be? It didn't make any sense!

But then again, when had anything ever made sense around here?

 **[A/N It is I, and I have finally found the time to update this story again! I really apologise for the late update, but I'm afraid the updates will be really slow from here on out. I'm officially in Secondary 3, and my life has just gotten so busy. I hope you guys understand.** **Oh, and by the way, remember the poll I set up? Well, the results are in, and the story featuring Edward's past is going to be written. I have plans for that, so many plans!** **Well, that's all so bye!** **~ Gwntan12]**


	12. Phantom of the Past

Germany, Japan and Italy were currently seated on a train bound for Amestris. Too bad Nation Hopping had it's limits, or they would have already reached Germany's neighbour more than two hours ago.

Really, it was times like these Germany wished Nation Hopping without exhaustion or any of those pesky side effects didn't only apply to Hopping in one's own country. The Germanic Nation remembered the last time he tried to Nation Hop to Japan's country. Needless to say, he was pretty much conked out for the next couple of hours.

It would have made life so much easier. There was also that little bit of only being able to hop once into another nation's land, and then temporarily lose that ability for as long as they stay on that nation's land or any other land that wasn't their own.

Whoever up there who did the mechanics of Nation Hopping must have decided it was unfair to let Nations go where ever they pleased with Nation Hopping, and decided to restrict the countries Hopping boundaries to their own country. That, or the person was, putting it very nicely, an ass.

Honestly, Germany really wanted to flip them the bird, since they had a rather pressing situation on hand that couldn't be delayed...

Italy was practically bouncing in his seat, humming happily and unknowingly annoying the holy hell out of Germany as the Italian chattered on and on about his last trip to Amestris.

"Veh~ It was so nice! And there were so many nice people! They weren't at all like scary England! Ve~ And Eddie said he'll be moving back to Amestris soon now that he's old enough!" Again, Germany still had no idea who 'Eddie' was, and it was sort of driving him nuts not knowing who Italy was talking about.

"Mein gott, Italien, who the hell are you talking about?!"

"Uwah! Don't hurt me!" Italy wailed, waving a white flag he had produced from who knows where. Germany made a mental note to check if his Italian friend was mass producing white flags again. "And I can't tell you! I pinky promised Eddie not to tell anyone!"

Japan just deadpanned at the two, whilst this was going on. Westerners were so strange...

0o0

After that incident with the doctor, Ling made sure that either Lan Fan or himself were in the room at all times.

It wasn't that they didn't trust the hospital staff. (Alright, they didn't actually trust them quite as much as they had before, but still!) They just didn't want to take the risk of having another psycho trying to murder Xing, even though it probably wouldn't work.

Ling was quite sure that Xing wouldn't want to be out of commission for another week or so on top of that undetermined amount of time he'd be out.

He gave a long sigh. Honestly, he thought that all kinds of craziness would be more or less over, especially after that incident with the Homunculi. But nooo, some idiot just had to find out about the personified nations, and cause all this trouble.

It was at times like these when Ling really wished that Edward was still around to help out in situations like these. He always did have a streak for -sometimes unintentionally- fixing everyone's problems...

Ling's eyes widened as he felt a presence pass Amestris's borders. That felling... it was a Nation's.

The Emperor's eyebrows met as he furrowed them whist trying to remember which nation gave off this chi. Oh wait, it wasn't just one presence. There were three.

Finally, it clicked into place. A Nation's chi that felt vaguely similar to Xing's, one that felt rather... warm and happy, and lastly, one. that felt like one of the Germanic Nation's.

Of course, it was those three nations, Japan, Italy, and Germany.

But why were they here?

0o0

An hour in, and Alphonse still had no luck in finding his two chimera companions. He ran a hand through his golden blond hair in frustration, sighing deeply. Now what should he do? He'd been walking around in circles, without any luck whatsoever!

Plus, those crazy Amestrians were really starting to freak him out...

Briefly, Alphonse wondered why he even bothered to get up that morning.

Maybe, if he was lucky, he was actually still in bed and his teacher was about to come up any minute now to shove him off the bed. Even better, maybe these past fifteen years was just a really bad nightmare whilst he was trying to recover from his malnourished state.

If he could wake up, maybe his brother would be there...

Alphonse pinched himself, wincing.

Nope, he was definitely awake.

The youngest Elric groaned.

0o0

Amestris was panicking. Really, there was no other word to describe how he was feeling.

Why?

Well, quite simple, really.

He had just lost his guardians. Or, his guardians had lost Amestris, but it was did not actually matter, seeing as how both meant the same thing. Either way, the problem still stood.

Amestris was beginning to regret letting go of England's hand...

He shook his head, a determined glint entering his eyes. No, he was a grown country! He had no need for someone to hold his hand any longer. He was over half a millennium old!

Of course, but why did he still have the appearance of a child...?

He scrunched up his brows, deep in thought. Actually, now that he thought about it, why was most of his memories so vague? It was like there was a veil over his memories, preventing him from viewing them properly.

Amestris knocked his head with a fist, frowning slightly. He'd think about that later. Right now, he needed to find his way around.

He navigated his way through the crowd, standing on tip toes in hopes of catching sight of his caretakers, but no such luck.

Heaving a sigh, Amestris jumped up, hoping the extra few centimetres would allow him to catch sight of the older nations. However, as he did so, he caught sight of something, the same something that made him lose track of the Nations.

That armour...

Amestris scrambled to follow the armour that seemed to beckon him, desperately trying not to lose sight of the imposing figure.

Something at the back of his head nagged at him, telling him something important, but Amestris just couldn't seem to decipher what exactly his head was telling him. All he knew, was that he had to follow.

"Wait!" Amestris called, nearly tripping over his own feet.

He paused, panting slightly as he looked around, having lost sight of the armoured person.

Just then, a flutter of white hair that served as the armour's headpiece caught his attention, which resulted in Amestris's running after.

Turning one more bend which led into an alleyway, Amestris felt his eyes widen. The armour had already stopped moving, but it had stopped next to a blond boy who wore a bright red coat.

The boy's hair was braided at his back, and when he turned around, Amestris saw familiar golden eyes.

Why were they familiar?

The answer was simple.

They were Amestris's own golden eyes.

The boy, who shared an uncanny resemblance to Amestris, gave the nation a large grin as a fist thumped the armour's chest plate.

 _"Remember us."_

The red glow at the armour's eyes shone brightly for a moment, and Amestris could have sworn he heard a childish laugh, before the two faded away.

Amestris, stunned, just stared at the spot where he had seen the two apparitions, before his legs gave out underneath him. He slid to the floor, feeling numb.

He brought a hand up to his face, still wide eyed. It was flesh and blood, so why did he feel as though something was wrong with his hand as it is?

"Remember us...?" Amestris whispered, his mind still trying to grasp what had just happened.

"Remember what?"

Something clicked in his head. The apparition of the blond boy... Wasn't his hand automail?

His hand clutched the cloth over his heart. Why did it hurt so much?

"Have I really forgotten something...?"

He looked back at his hand.

"But... what did I forget?"

Amestris found that not even his subconscious could answer that this time.

0o0

Ling could honestly say that no one usually was able to sneak up on him, be it intentionally or unintentionally.

Especially not one as loud as the almost adult teenage looking Personification that had just burst into the room.

"America?" Ling spluttered on his tea that he had been previously drinking, before gaping at the American, wondering how the latter had even found out about Xing being hospitalised.

"Sup, Emperor dude!" Informal as always, America let out one of his trademark laughs while Ling made a face at him.

"Quiet down, Alfred! This is a hospital!" England snapped at the American as soon as he stepped through the doorway, although Ling did note how the English man's eyes occasionally flickered with worry towards America.

"You know, he's right..." Canada mumbled softly, although this was not heard through England's attempt to strangle the loud American.

France patted the Canadian on the back. "Don't bother, mon lapin. They are idiots."

Ling cleared his throat, finally gaining the nations' attention. "Um... why are you all here in the first place?"

"Duh, isn't it obvious? We came to see Xing since Ed told us he felt Xing get shot-!"

"Wait, where's Amestris?" England suddenly cut in, looking around for the smaller blond that apparently had gone missing.

America fell silent for a moment, before the freaking out commenced. "Holy crap, we lost Ed!"

With that, America dashed out of the room, intent on finding Amestris while still freaking out as the others stared after him with a deadpanned face.

"... I have no comment." Ling finally spoke, rubbing his temples as he felt the familiar throb of a migraine coming.

England coughed awkwardly. "Well, I better do what I need to before I go after the git."

The English Nation strode over to Xing's limp form, before pulling the blankets down slightly.

His eyes widened for a split second, before they narrowed into slits.

"Just as I thought..." He muttered darkly as Ling got up.

"What?" Came the Emperor's very intelligent response.

Canada shuffled forward, peering over his glasses before his eyes widened as well.

"Maple..." He squeaked in a small voice, hugging Kumajiro to his chest.

Finally, Ling got his chance to look, his face mirroring Canada's expression. Over the area where Xing had been shot, was a dark purplish bruise that seemed to spiral like a spiderweb.

"Wha- what is _that_?!" Ling gasped in horror. This was definitely _not_ normal, by any standards!

"Ameriquè had one on his hand," France spoke over Ling's shoulder. "He had been shot there."

Ling spluttered for a moment more, before calming himself.

"Why the _hell_ are people shooting at you guys?!" Alright, maybe he wasn't as calm as he thought he was.

"Someone found out about us Nations." England turned to Ling. "We don't know who did, but we do know that whoever they are, they want us dead, and I fear that they may be close killing us, if they can already drive a nation to this," He gestured to Xing. "-state."

"Oh, that. I knew about the finding out about you guys part."

The English Nation turned to the door. "Anyway, I have to go find both America and Amestris now. After that, I have to go and inform the rest of the Nations."

"Leave that to me, Angleterre." France spoke, for once choosing not to tease England. "You go find mon petite Amestrè and Ameriquè."

England didn't say another word as he strode out.

 **[A/N Oh my! I actually managed to finish this chapter before the half year mark! Holy shit, I must be dreaming!** **Ouch, okay, I'm not dreaming. That pinch hurt...** **Anyway, I'M SO SORRY ABOUT THE LATE UPDATE!!!!!!! DAMN IT, SECONDARY THREEEEEEEE!** **It really feels like my teachers are actually trying to drown us in homework...** **Welp, I'm dead.** **Chineseeeeee, why you kill meeeeee?** **And apparently, my Physics is shit too. Damn turning effect of forces, damn forces, damn measurements, damn kinematics, damn pressure, damn... EVERYTHING!!** **Whoops, I got distracted again...** **Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, since I will probably not be updating for a VERY long time because I'm being drowned in homework and revision. But I'll try to get one chapter out every few months or so.** **Well, see you guys next time!** **~ Gwntan12**


	13. So it Begins

Amestris hadn't moved from the spot he had sat at, still feeling rather dazed.

Those two... were they his citizens? But why had one of them looked like him? Did they have something to do with the gap in his memory?

He gave a small sniffle. Why couldn't he remember?! What happened to him?! Even England didn't know what happened to him!

Getting to his feet, Amestris made his way to the main street in hopes of finding the others, picking up his pace as he did so.

But... even as he ran, the throbbing pain in his chest refused to fade.

0o0

Hohenheim honestly didn't know what puahed him to return to Amestris. He just had a feeling he should be there or he'd miss something important.

Whether or not it was the good kind of important, or the bad kind, he wasn't sure.

Hohenheim really hoped that he wasn't wrong about this and that he wasn't just wasting precious time here that cpuld be used to try and find his eldest son.

Even though he hadn't had much luck with that for the past fifteen years.

But as Hohenheim had learnt from past experience, luck could change with just the turn of a hat-

All of a sudden, the former resident of the Kingdom of Xerxes staggered backwards as a blur barreled straight into him. He was not expecting this, since the road he was on was practically deserted even though it still a decent time.

"What on earth...?" Hohenheim stammered, seeing the small boy who had literally ran into him fell onto the dusty ground, dazed, with the wind knocked out of him.

"Ouch... I'm gonna feel that for awhile..." The boy complained slightly, holding his head in pain.

Gold eyes looked up at Hohenheim-

 _"Gold eyes?"_ Hohenheim found himself wondering, before his breath hitched sharply.

He found himself thinking that someone with possible Xerxian heritage in their blood would have been less unexpected than running into a child who looked like the splitting image of his eldest son.

Seriously, what were the chances of something like that?

"You're a Xerxian." The boy stated in a casual tone. It wasn't phrased as a question, but was stated as a fact. "You're one of mother's."

As if that wasn't confusing. Another added mystery, he supposed. _One of his mother's?_

That puzzling statement aside, Hohenheim had this absurd notion that he had met this boy somewhere before. And no, he was not thinking about this boy's uncanny likeness to his son.

In fact, this boy actually reminded Hohenheim of a child he had met when he was still a teenager.

And that someone ended up sharing a rather disturbing similarity to Hohenheim's son, who now also shared this now extremely disturbing likeness to the child in front of him.

Actually, Hohenheim had met someone else back at Resembool a few decades back at that small dancing event who looked like this boy as well.

... Come to think of it, this was getting rather complicated.

Hohenheim sincerely hoped this was just another case of coincidences, and not a case of reincarnation.

Because that would mean Edward _died_ , and frankly, that was honestly not a thought he liked to entertain that much. And he was fairly certain that Alphonse would throttle him for suggesting something like that.

However, something in Hohenheim's gut told him that neither of the above mentioned was the case -foretunately- in this particular dilemma.

But if not, then _what was he missing?_

Hohenheim just about fainted when the child in front of him opened his mouth again to speak.

"Thanks for helping avenge mother. I knew the Homunculus was a bad idea."

Hohenheim's eyes widened to almost comical proportion from behind his glasses.

 _A woman dressed in fine robes was **screaming** -_

 _A child **pleading** the woman not to go-_

It clicked.

But by then, the child was gone, as if he had never been there in the first place.

That boy... he couldn't possibly be that child from all those years ago, could he?

But then again, in the words of Greed,

 _Nothing is impossible._

0o0

 _"You remind me of one of my friends."_

 _"He came to learn Alchemy with me. I wouldn't be surprised if he's learning again in an endless cycle of reincarnation."_

 _"Eternity isn't as pleasant as people believe it to be. No, it's nothing good. It's just plain **torture**."_

 _"No, it's just... painful. I think about that word plenty of times... And... I sometimes wonder if I'll be missed."_

 _"I hope you find what you're looking for, Hohenheim of the Light."_

 _"Good luck. You'll need it."_

0o0

"Alfred!" A small body collided with America's with a quiet 'oof!', before the former landed unceremoniously on his rear.

America lit up upon seeing the nation he had previously been searching for, before picking him up and crushing him in a hug, nearly crying with relief.

"Dude! I thought I lost you!" The American dramatically wailed, still oblivious to Amestris's quickly turning blue face.

"Alfred-san, is that you?" With a girly, rather high pitched shriek that America would later deny, he dropped Amestris, spinning around to meet the calm gaze of a certain Japanese man.

"Kiks! What are you doing in Amestris?" Alfred laughed nervously, doing a rather poor job at acting casual which was already suspicion.

Japan's face remained neutral as always, although it could be seen that the shorter nation was tempted to raise an eyebrow at America's poor acting skills that could apparently only need decent in a dire situation. This situation, however, was obviously not dire enough.

"Konnichiwa, I would greet formerly, but I do not have time. We have a situation on our hands, and that involves this Amestris-san's country." Japan reached into his coat's pocket, pulling out the article from Amestris's newspaper which brought him to the country in the first place.

America took one look at the paper before he freaked out, nearly pulling his hair out in a fit of hysteria.

Japan honestly wasn't sure how he should respond to the hysterical nation was practically on the floor by this point of time.

Before he could decide what to do about the American who was almost foaming at the mouth, Japan caught sight of a smaller blond boy who was busy poking the currently comatose Westerner.

"Sumimasen, but, who are you?" Japan asked the small blond curiously, who looked up at the Asian man to meet his gaze.

Japan felt himself freeze at the sight of gold eyes. Impossible, the only people he knew with gold eyes were the now deceased Xerxes and the currently MIA Amestris.

The Japanese nation hardly felt genuinely shocked about anything, other than his discovery of nakedness in Western culture, and the fact France ate _snails_ of all things, but Japan could easily say that meeting a little boy who looked like _Amestris_ was a little too much for his heart to take.

If he was as old as China, he'd probably have a heart attack right there and then.

Suddenly, Japan really wished he knew where Italy had run off to with Germany chasing after him. It would have been nice to have some normalcy around.

Well, at least as normal as it could have gotten with _Italy_ around. Japan had never met someone who loved Pasta more than his own life, and constantly announced it wherever he went. Not to mention stripping in public because he felt 'hot' and that he was Italian so all the 'chicks' 'dig it', whatever that meant.

"...are you okay?" Japan snapped himself out of his thoughts, turning his attention back to the boy. "You kinda just blanked out for a moment there."

"Ah... gomen, I have a lot of things on my mind." Japan apologised, embarrassed. "Are you here with Alfred-san?"

"Naw, he's the one who's tagging along. I'm here with my brother, and Alfred dragged Mattie along on this. Francy came cause' he wanted to bother big brother." Amestris honestly said.

Japan nodded, considering this information. "I see... ano... would your brother happen to be Arthur-san?"

Amestris opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, a loud explosion rocked itself through Central City, sending debris flying.

At the exact same moment, Amestris dropped to the ground, crying out in pain as he kicked and clawed at his chest, blood seeping through his shirt and dribbling out of his mouth. His pained cries really hit Japan hard.

He was only little kid...!

Japan watched this in horror for a few more brief seconds before he immediately rushed to tend to smaller boy.

Wait, not a boy. His reaction to the explosion had only confirmed what Japan had believed. Nations got injured of someone tried to attack the country.

That boy was Amestris, if not, why else was he hurt when Amestris was under attack?

America who had snapped out of his semi hysterical state from earlier, could only offer the smaller nation emotional support as Amestris cried out in pain.

Amestris's hand gripped at the ground, as if looking for comfort, so America took the Amestrian nation's hand in his own.

"It hurts..." Amestris whimpered, breaking America's heart. The American wasn't by any terms as over protective as England was, but damn, it still hurt.

"Al..." Amestris was saying, almost deliriously. But before America could say anything, the younger nation spoke again.

"Alphonse... it hurts." America's mouth opened and closed, as if he was imitating a goldfish, but no words would come.

Why was Amestris asking for that man they had met earlier on the train?

"Alfred! What happened?!" Speak of the Devil, Alphonse was there, looking utterly frazzled and panicked the moment he laid eyes on Amestris's wounded form.

He didn't wait for America to respond though. He rushed right to Amestris's side, pulling out a piece of chalk from his pocket before drawing a Transmutation circle for alkahestry.

Japan knew what Alkahestry was, so he moved out of the way and let Alphonse do what he could.

Blue light lit the chalk circle up, carefully knitting the wound over Amestris's heart up. Sweat dripped down the Alphonse's temple as he concentrated, biting his lip nervously.

He nearly lost focus, however, when Amestris looked up at him with bleary eyes. "It hurts... not again... Al... it failed...the Transmutation... why did it...?"

 _Oh Truth_ , Alphonse concentrated on healing Amestris, but the same thought was running through his head. _He knows. He knows about that night. He really is my brother._"Truth, you bastard..." Amestris muttered deliriously once more before promptly passing out.

"EDWARD!" England arrived at the scene, but Alphonse turned away. He didn't want to see this. The burning jealousy in his chest just made the realisation worse.

His brother really didn't remember him.

His brother had a new family.

Wow, that hurt more than Alphonse thought it would.

But... after what happened here, Edward had recognised Alphonse, even if he was delirious at the time. That gave Alphonse hope.

Maybe his brother would remember him...

He wasn't too selfish for wishing that...

Right?

0o0

Elsewhere, somewhere in the country, a man smirked.

"So it begins."

 **[A/N OH MY GOODNESS, I ACTUALLY MANAGED TO GET THIS OUT EVEN THOUGH IT'S ALREADY PAST MIDNIGHT!**

 **So yes! It is I, and I have returned! Sorry about the delay, I was busy drowning myself in the Blue Exorcist fandom, and lamenting over the fact there is no season 3. I swear I'm going to shoot something if season 3 will never exist.**

 **And just one question, was this chapter a bit rushed? I can't really tell.**

 **Well anyway, thanks for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed it!**

 **See you guys next time!**

 **~ Gwntan12]**


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